Shadow Prince
by tohonomike
Summary: Xander is changed during the Dracula Episode BX Part 19 up
1. Chapter 1

Shadow Prince (1?) Previously Posted as Xander-Hog Day 79: A Count of One Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. Buffy? Nope. None are mine. 

Alexander Harris from another World, working for the Frey and Freya, found himself in the castle of Count Dracula; he could feel the magics, almost but not entirely dark, permeate the area. Quickly he set Pip and Pop, his twin mini-drags, off to the side to provide some measure of early warning against the undead as he quickly set up the spell as he'd been directed. He heard his local self and Buffy entering the castle to find Dracula, but couldn't stop his own casting. Feeling the link to the magically powerful master vampire mage, he made the best possible time.

There seemed to be a magical backflow to the spell, which as far as he could tell, combined a purification spell with a power absorption spell.

Alexander felt clean in every aspect, powered up, and feeling really good about life in general and about what he was doing for his alternate selves.

Stepping out of the room, he was somewhat amazed that the structure itself seemed clean and new, restored and without taint. He found his alternate self lying on an expensive rug in a heap, so he picked him up and carefully set him on what could only be described as a throne. On the other side of a thick door, he'd heard Giles and Buffy talking, about something frantically, but as he was moving away with Xander, he couldn't hear the exact words.

"Giles, quick!" Buffy called out, "Something's wrong with Riley!"

"Good Lord, Buffy, pick him up and run him to the hospital," Giles directed, "I'll be right behind you."

"I can't, Giles," the girl gasped, "I don't seem to have my slayer strength right now, please help him."

"Alright, you get the door, a-and use the first pay phone we come across."

Placing his hand on the young man's chest, he activated the recall spell, and was surprised that he experienced glimpses of local Xander receiving the memories and some of the abilities of the Dark Prince, as a result of the link the vampire had established.

"What hit me?" the local Xander asked as he came to, "And who are you? And what did you do to me?"

"I'm you from a different dimension, Dracula put the whammy on you and I cast a reclamation spell to give you all the good and little of the bad from the hyena and soldier. Didn't really expect that being in contact with Fangus Maximus meant you'd get a bunch of that, too. Sorry about that."

"Is Buffy okay!" Xander responded, suddenly realizing he'd led her to the castle, "I gotta find her!"

"She's fine, her and Giles just left in a hurry. Probably betting her temporarily negated strength has her worried."

"So, can I go now?" Xander asked.

"Sure, but I'm thinking that as I'm leaving soon, this could be your new home," Alexander gestured, "I'm sure the Toothy One has enough in the way of valuables that Joyce could hock for you, you could even get away with not working and just mastering your abilities…and magic."

"Magic? Me? Are you sure you're me?" Xander asked, then recounted the few times he'd had anything to do with magic.

"You do realize that you didn't cast spells, right? So it wasn't you," Alexander sighed, "And having just been given the upsides of the possessions kind a fills in the gaps of your susceptibility. And if I can do it, so can you."

"Hmm, I don't know…"

"Now, let's go find the vamp's books and see what you might be able to do before I need to leave."

"What do you think I can do?"

"Probably most of the neat tricks people think vampires can do? I'm guessing that it is a bunch of combination spells, where instead of turning into a bat, you're casting a glamour that looks like it while you run away to avoid getting staked."

"So how long you here for?"

"Well, it's what? Seven in the morning? Another seventeen hours then," Alexander considered, "Do you mind if we head out to breakfast? I'm starved."

"Okay, now I know you're me."

The morning went well enough for the local Xander until they ran into Anya, which after recognizing Alexander led to her breaking up with Xander on the spot and fleeing town immediately.

"What was that all about?" Xander asked in confusion.

"We ran into each other before she became human, and I've been happily chasing her away from our alternates ever since. I mean, come on Other Me, if one of you normal Xanders ever screwed up that relationship, don't you think that her vengeance demon friends might have fun at your expense?"

Local Xander shuddered at the possibility.

The Scooby Gang was avoided the entire day, and after transferring title to the property to Xander, stocking up on supplies and groceries, buying a generator and some basic lighting, they returned to Castle Alexander. Sparring, spell basics, general discussion of local Xander's issues and such pretty much filled the rest of the day and night. The local man felt better, more stable than he had before, and had a good beginning to a couple of weeks of self-training. And when Alexander dropped one of his last four bundles of cash he'd carried on him at all times since raiding the mint, it removed the last excuse for avoiding study.

"Now, just do what you need to do, study the magics and work out as much as possible. If you feel restless, sneak over to an area Buffy doesn't get to and dust a few vamps."

"Why don't I just tell them?"

"I think you should see how far you can get without help, Xander, that way they can't really try talking you out of it because you'll already be doing it."

"I guess I could be a backup for Buffy and Willow…"

"Maybe their equal, remember how close it was with Buff during the hyena? And since you have the power now, and you know the only smarts involved with magic is knowing the language the spell is written in, or for combining them for a new spell, you can't worm out on those grounds. Who knows? You might be able to get Amy back among the humans."

"Yeah, I'll give it a try," Xander replied, nodding as they shook hands, "Ur, thanks."

"My pleasure, Other Me," Alexander smiled, "And good luck."


	2. Chapter 2

Shadow Prince (2?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. Buffy? Nope. None are mine. 

Three weeks went by, and Xander Harris had practiced magic incessantly, his only breaks being a hyena-fast hyena level of burden unarmed combat practice routine.

With the helpful start he'd received from his alternate self, he'd begun to delve slowly but surely into Dracula's magic tomes and resources, slowly but surely making progress in each area, but self-healing at a faster rate than usual seemed to be his best area.

He'd enjoyed his construction job, and with his improved physique he'd had an even easier time, since despite Alexander's pointing out work might not be necessary, the thought of not giving notice when he'd been doing so well just didn't feel right. He'd pushed himself physically and mentally, and offered suggestions on more efficient execution of the work.

Ten days later, his part of the job was done, and he'd been offered a promotion and further employment when they began a job in Carlton in November. He'd accepted, and planned to intensify his training in the meantime.

He'd gotten used to hunting the few vampires determined to repopulate Sunnydale these last several nights, and he'd discovered he was actually able to cast 'fear' on the weaker ones. This allowed him to step up from two at a time, to the four he was engaging now. And using a combination of guns, soldier moves and his new hyena-originating abilities, he soon finished the last of them.

"That was good, Xander," the blonde slayer asked, a small smile and an appreciative look at the dust scattered on the ground, "Been practicing long?"

"More a matter of commitment, Buffy," he admitted, "Though I've been pushing it the last couple weeks. Looks like you've been rolling around in something stinky there, Buff."

"I'm after this demon named Toth," she told him, swaying a little more in the hips as she clearly scanned the area for threats, "You see a demon in a cape go by?"

"No, I mainly just concentrate on the less flamboyantly dressed vampire population, Buff," Xander replied, breathing a little deeper as she approached, "So I-I guess I'll let you get back to that." He stepped away, giving her a little wave.

"Where've you been Xander?" Buffy asked suddenly, causing him to pause as he stepped into the shadows at the gate of the cemetery, "I can't remember the last time I saw you."

"Sure you do, Buff," he smiled, "Think about it, it'll come to you."

When she reached the gate, she noticed a little fading mist, but no sign of her friend. Then it came to her, 'the castle,' and she began to walk steadily toward the location of the mysteriously disappeared Dark Prince. A block from the cemetery, she noticed Spike's car, clean and detailed, driving away, one Xander Harris at the wheel.

The Slayer raced through Sunnydale, using alleys and other shortcuts to make it to the castle as quickly as possible, and watched as Xander pulled up and headed up toward the doors.

"Xander, wait!" Buffy called out, causing the young man to halt after

unlocking the door, "What are you doing here? And why haven't I seen you since you led me here that night?"

He nodded, and gestured at the door, "Mi casa es su casa, Buff."

He walked through the still-spotless castle to the kitchens, which he'd fixed up enough so that it had electrical lighting hooked up to solar panels and a generator, a fridge and a few amenities.

"Hungry? Please help yourself to whatever you can find in the fridge," he told her as he reached into a small wine rack, "I'm just going to have some wine and some bread. Would you like some?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," she told him as she examined the entirety of her surroundings, "So after the Count disappeared, you took over his digs?"

"Pretty much," he replied, placing a pair of loaves, some fruit, and some fresh butter on the table between them, "After you left with Giles, I was too wiped to move for a while, and decided I needed a place to stay that wasn't the Harris basement, went down to the tax lien office, paid the taxes on the abandoned land, had a guy do some mojo on the records to show this place as a recent relocation, and it's mine."

"Why the secrecy?" she pressed as they both enthusiastically ate the bread and she smiled at the 'lightness' of the port wine he'd chosen, "I've been wondering where you've been. And Spike's car?"

"Well, you found me easily enough once you decided to look," he replied, "And until a couple days ago, I was on the same construction site I've been on for a couple months, now. And when I discovered that the vamps all seemed to go 'poof,' I decided I needed a good car."

"Well, I probably wasn't looking for you because of Riley's heart problems."

"What? He seems a little young."

"Yeah, but something happened just after you brought me here last time, and whatever it was also affected a chip implanted by Walsh in Riley, so he had a heart attack."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's back home in Iowa, but I think he might go back to the demon hunting with his friends when he recovers," she said, looking only a little sad, and eying him with just enough speculation that he noticed.

"I'm planning to do a little survival practice up in the mountains for the next couple of days?" he told her, remembering it was a Thursday night,

"If you ditch classes tomorrow, you could come with me."

"Survival practice?"

"Camping, following up a lead on a small biker gang of 4-5 demons, learning to focus my senses better, and hunting things much faster than me. The pushing myself sort of thing."

"I really should be going after the Toth demon," she sighed, clearly tempted at taking a break, "Though it seems to be looking for me."

"Why not just leave a note at Willy's, tell it to meet you at the trailhead in two days," Xander kidded, "Maybe it'll be stupid enough to show up."

Buffy was really feeling good taking to a Xander that apparently could take care of himself better than Riley, and smelled good to her slayer senses.

"I'm in," she said immediately, almost flirtatiously pushing the last of her bread into her mouth, "What time?"

"Swing by here about seven, and we'll head up," he told her, finishing his glass of wine and standing up, "Since you're coming with me, I need to prep some extra gear, so I'll show you out."

"You seem awful proper, and trying awfully hard to get rid of me," she told him as she preceded him back through the place, "Why don't I just stay over?"

"Because," he gulped, "You need to at least go pack clothes and minimal toiletries for the trip, keep it light."

"Better idea, pick me up at my dorm room at seven and we'll clear out faster; we'll swing by and leave Giles a note on the way out of town."

"Okay, night Buff," he said, smiling at a chance for a 'normal' weekend.

**Same Time, Magic Box**

"Why don't you stay at your mother's place tonight, Buffy," Giles told his human-strength slayer, "A-and tomorrow we'll finish up on researching this demon."

"I guess," the diminutive girl sighed, starting to stand, "I just feel so useless. This is the second time in a month I've lost my slayer powers. What if they stay gone?"

"Then we'll just take over the slaying until you get them back," Willow assured her, "Like Xander had us do when you ran away."

"Oh."

"I didn't mean it that way, Buffy," Willow assured her, "And where is Xander? I haven't seen him in a couple weeks?"

"Yeah, the last I saw him was before we took Riley to the hospital."

"We'll call him tomorrow and put together a patrol schedule until you get back on your feet," Giles reassured her, also disturbed that neither friend knew of Xander's whereabouts, "And he and I will provide weapons cover while Tara and Willow serve as our magical artillery."

"And I'll just wait at home until you call to let me know what's going on," Buffy sighed.

"Now you know how Xander feels when you ignore him the way you have, sis," Dawn rubbed in, "But at least he didn't just give up like you are. If someone cocked it for you, you could still fire a crossbow, right?"

**3 PM – Friday – Magic Box **

Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn entered the magic store, Giles a bit surprised to see his young slayer.

"Oh, Buffy, I thought you were going camping with Xander," he remarked, "I'm glad you're more responsible than that."

"Camping? What are you talking about, Giles?" Buffy asked in confusion, "I haven't seen Xander since Dracula's castle two weeks ago."

"What!" Willow exclaimed, "And you left him there!"

"Riley was having a heart attack and that magic just ripped my powers away, Will," Buffy sobbed, her emotional state being unstable at best, "And we barely saved him."

"Then why did you leave me a letter?" the Watcher asked, holding it out to her, "It appears to be your handwriting."

"Oh, it is, but I didn't write this, Giles, you gotta believe me," she cried and clung to him, "I don't know anything about it."

"Well, then, of course I believe you," he responded, awkwardly but affectionately patting her on the back, "But it is possible you did in a way?"

"H-How's that Mr. Giles?" Tara asked.

"The rod device the demon was carrying," Giles instructed them, "It's called a ferula-gemina. It splits one person in half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. As near as I can tell, Toth was attempting to split the slayer into two different entities. Possibly, he succeeded.

"Two Buffys?" Willow asked, amazed as she looked at Giles' book for confirmation.

"Yes. One with all the qualities inherent in Buffy Summers," he remarked, "and the other one with everything that belongs to the slayer alone ... the, uh, the-the strength, the, uh, speed, the heritage. So when it struck Buffy last night, it must have split Buffy into the Slayer and the regular human."

"But which one of us is the, the real one?" Buffy asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Both of you are real, but the two halves can't exist without each other. Kill the weaker Buffy half, and the slayer half dies."

"So how do we find me before something happens," the girl asked, then mood-swung to miffed, "and what could she be doing with Xander?"

"That's three each, Buff," Xander Harris smiled at his camping date, as they raced deeper into the woods, gear still with them but no cell phones, "Only three dozen more to go before we can resume our camping."

"Less talk, Mister only four or five…DOZEN demons," the slayer told him, "How much farther until we get to that ambush point you talked about earlier?"

"Just another mile or so up and toward the dry wash bed, an hour if we want to cross the rock beds and tire these biker demons out some before they get there."

"You up to that?" she asked as they continued moving, "You moves are impressive, but what about staying power?"

"I'm leading this dance, Buff, once we get the ambush ready, I'll let you know a few new secrets of mine."

"Oh yeah, and I've been meaning to ask you a few things for a while now," she responded, then answered his earlier suggestion, "Let's make this hard on 'em."

"Cool, I like it hard."

"Slay now, flirt later."

The Scooby Gang had reached the parking lot of the trailhead after some preparations and two locator spells, and even over a forestry map, couldn't understand the stop and race maneuvers Xander and Slayer Buffy were carrying out as they noted well over forty motorcycles and two demons guarding them.

"Arsum!" Willow shouted as she cast a fire spell she'd been storing up, actually managing to hit the larger one as Girl Buffy and Giles both reached for crossbows and fired them, wounding the other one.

"I got one! I got one!" Willow enthused, but found no one to 'high five' as Xander was up on the mountain.

"Yes, you did, hon," Tara encouraged, smiling at the others.

Riley pulled up in a borrowed truck, having phoned the gang on his return an hour before.

"So anything new?" he asked as cautiously approached Girl Buffy, who swiftly clung to him, "Hey, it's okay, Buffy, we'll get you back together in one piece."

"I'm sorry about the message the other me left on your machine," she whispered, "Why would she break up with you?"

"I don't know, but I'm here for you now."

The Hyena and Soldier revelation hadn't met with great opposition from Slayer Buffy.

"I thought you'd make a big stink about it," he told her as they sprung the ambush, lighting the pine needles and dropping debris down atop the lead demons.

"Oh, I think it's coming in handy right about now," she responded, beheading two with one of the short swords they'd brought along, "And anything that kills more vampires or demons like right now, is a good thing."

"I-it's getting dark, now," Giles considered, "It's best we hide off to the side of the path where we can't be easier found."

"Least we know they seem to be doing alright," Willow offered, "We've counted seventeen demony bodies already."

"Yeah, it's probably for the best," the former commando agreed, "I'll scout up the trail a little bit wile you guys make camp."

"This is a great cave, Xander," a 'hungry' Slayer Buffy commented as she checked the sealed front of the cave so the demons wouldn't find it, "How did you know it was here?" She sidled up and moved her sleeping bag next to his.

"Jesse, Willow and I made it this far once when we were kids," he smiled in remembrance, letting her snuggle up as they sat watching the small fire he assured her couldn't be seen, "And after that, Jesse and I would explore the whole area during the summers she was gone on trips."

"So you're the native guide?"

"Sorta, enough to give us an edge over those biker demons," he nodded, putting his arm around to provide extra warmth to the cold-acting slayer. They quietly reminisced about earlier times, mostly good, but some not so good.

"So you're saying it was you who led Angel after me into the lair?"

"Yeah," Xander chuckled, "He loved you, but he sure was a wuss back then."

"So he's better now?"

"A vampire's a vampire to me, Buffy, but yeah, his trip to hell finally got him going the way he should have from the start."

"Why are you so bitter about him?" she asked, snuggling closer, her head resting on his chest, "Jesse?"

"Mostly, Jesse, I guess," Xander considered, "But mainly the way he only risked himself for you as a last result, the cryptic crap caused a lot of my friends and acquaintances from school to die because of his little game."

"Sorry," she replied, really enjoying being held by this improved and serious Xander, "I guess I didn't really realize."

"Don't dwell on it, Buff," he told her, "I'm actually having the best day of my life right now."

"Really? How's that?"

"A day of just the two of us sharing, talking, and fighting against long odds for our very lives?" he smiled, "Eating a rabbit not quite quick enough to elude the slayer? Cooked in berries and wild greens I noticed on the way? Come on, this is real living."

"You enjoy the slaying mission?"

"Heck yeah, Buff, I'm in it all the way, haven't you guessed by now?"

She pulled away and looked him over seriously, "Best day? Let's make this your best night."

IdiditwithBuffyIdiditwithBuffyIdiditwithBuffy the young hunter enthusiastically used as an internal mantra as they conducted hit and run against the demons all morning, dodging the gunfire and making life miserable as they enraged the leader and the toughest demons. And that was before they started to loopback on a separate trail to head back toward the parking lot.

They talked about everything, made each other angry, sad or amused, channeling darker emotions into the carnage. His lying about Acathla, his not telling them about the zombie bomb attempt, her inability to kill Angelus, and more, even the fact that Parker looked like Xander.

By four in the afternoon, they were clearly ahead of their foes, now reduced to about sixteen.

"Almost even odds, except for the guns," Slayer Buffy noted at one point, exchanging bandaging efforts to cover up the many small but definite wounds they'd both received.

And twice they'd 'not-slept' when they'd both expected to fight each other over something.

"Giles," Girl Buffy gasped, "I'm too tired, I can't go on."

"I admit, I'm also out of shape," he conceded, "Though I'm impressed by how evenly in styles the demon eliminations have been."

"Huh?"

"Oh, Xander seems to be keeping up with your other half quite admirably. Clearly it's his traps that are achieving the surprise in each ambush."

"Mr. Giles?" Tara called, looking at the map, "They seem to be coming back on that other trail."

"Oh, in that case, I suppose we should try to retrace our steps to that point on the trail and await their return," he sighed, "At least we won't have to run up the mountain after them any more."

"It's getting dark again," Slayer Buffy remarked with just a hint of suggestion in her voice, "Any more surprise caves?"

"Not on this trail, but I'm thinking we carry the attack to the demons, now."

"Aren't you tired?" she asked.

"Yeah, but if we can take out the leader, it might end this pretty quick, and they wouldn't expect us to actually just attack them?"

"How?"

"See this game trail? I bet it would out behind them…"

"Where they'd least be expecting it since they've been tracking us so far."

"Toth has found you, slayer, you cannot hide," the demon sneered as it collided with Girl Buffy's group on the trail. Willow shrieked and slipped down and under the demon, and Girl Buffy bumped Giles' crossbow, hurling a bolt down and into Toth's groin.

The demon screamed in outrage and tremendous pain, dropping its rod and howling. Girl Buffy picked up a big rock and threw it at the demon, causing him to falter and fall off the edge of the trail, which happened to be a drop of seventy or eighty feet onto sharp, jagged rocks. Toth came to an undignified and unmourned end.

"Not you best kill, Buffy, but I daresay I s-still quite glad you managed."

Riley chuckled, then rolled on the ground, careful not to join the Toth.

Rain had made the lives of the Scooby Gang truly miserable, forcing them to encamp at their previous site and wait it out until the next morning. They noticed at different times how Xander and Buffy seemed to backtrack, stop and then race down the mountain despite the rain.

"What could they be doing?" Girl Buffy asked, "and why are they heading back up?"

"I don't know," he conceded, brow frowning.

"They're attacking," Riley pronounced, "They doubled back and hit the demons in the rear, then led them back up the mountain. It's almost as if they've done this before."

"Xander sort has," Willow spoke up, "He and Jesse used to climb all over this area during the summers, they even sowed me some great caves up there that seem to have water year-round even if the surface is dry."

"That's our answer, but I didn't think Xander had the soldier memories any more," Giles nodded, "But that would explain what we've seen, and a slayer and a Special Forces soldier would make the demons pay dearly over known terrain."

"I wonder what restored the training," the ex-soldier considered, "if he'd shown any capability like this last year, he'd have been a shoe-in for the Initiative."

**Back at the cave**

"Well, that's the last of the ones that came after us, Buff," Xander smiled "And that deer I accidentally slayed will make some nice venison now that we've cleaned it."

"Yeah, it wasn't bad," she nodded, "I thought it would be really gross, but I seem to be really into this survival stuff, must be all the demon slaying."

"Yeah, and normally we'd let all of this age, but I'm hungry, so I'm getting the fire pit ready, and we should have some good coals in an hour or so."

"Hey Xander?"

"Yeah?"

"I have an idea of what to do for an hour."

**1 PM – Approaching the Cave**

"Th-that's forty-one I've counted so far," Giles' voice could be heard nearing the cavern, entering the clearing in front of it. The group took in the primitively domestic sight before them, clothes and gear hanging out to dry, venison cooking in roast and stew forms, a gathering of berries, wild greens and a few amenities packed in. Buffy was very close to Xander, being shown how to assemble a travois, and she was wearing one of his larger t-shirts down to her mid-thighs, and he only a pair of jeans.

"Hey, all, come ahead, we've heard you coming for a couple of minutes, now," Xander told them without looking up until they had finished a tie, "Is everything alright in town?"

Xander looked up to find Riley and another Buffy approaching as well, the ex-soldier clearly reading the situation with Slayer Buffy correctly and being unpleased about it.

"Hey, Buff, I didn't know you had a twin," he said as he dusted himself off and helped her to stand.

"I don't…" she replied, tensing up until he placed a hand gently on her forearm to calm her.

"Let's hear what Giles has to say," he said, and as he turned Riley had moved forward and managed a glancing blow on Xander's left cheek, staggering the younger man, but causing a dangerous smile to appear.

Xander held out his left arm to keep Slayer Buffy back as he at blinding speed and a lot of his strength round-housed a right into Riley's jaw, breaking it in at least two places, one of them the hinge of the jaw. The soldier left his feet from the force of the blow, and almost losing consciousness before he fell into some brush. Xander stalked over to Riley and crouched down.

"I coulda killed you right now, so don't ever ambush me again. I knew what you were thinking, and you were right. But never go for a sucker punch, cause I took one from Angelus, and spent five minutes not blacking out, soldier. He went easy on you for Buffy's sake when he was here. But this Buffy told me she'd called it off with you, and made it clear we weren't rebounding."

Xander stood up and turned to Giles as Girl Buffy ran over to Riley, Tara helping her a moment later. Giles and Willow explained the situation to Slayer Buffy and Xander, warily in he latter case.

"Well, Buff," Xander smiled sadly, "To live you have to do it, so do it. I know things at best will go back to the way they were, and probably down the crapper for once it all sinks in. But I have to tell you, these have been the best three days of my life, no regrets, and I've seen you smile more in the three days, than in the last two years."

He drew her in for a long embrace and passionate kiss, nearly three minutes going by before he smiles, slowly lets go, and moves away.

"I'll check on the food, bye Buff."

The set up for the spell only took a few minutes, Xander gathering most of his superfluous gear and now-dried clothing onto the travois with the large collection of leathers, boots, weapons, keys and miscellany taken from the long encounter with the bikers. The spell was cast, and Buffy collapsed in exhaustion next to an already unconscious Riley.

Xander sat down and began to eat, a pleasant mixture of meat and greens on a mess kit plate. He watched without showing too much emotion as they tried to figure out their travel arrangements.

"Aren't you gonna help us?" Willow asked with a little disbelief, "Xander?"

"Nope."

"Why not?" the redhead asked, "Buffy's your friend."

"Slayer Buffy was more than a friend for the best and most recent three days of my life, Willow," he said while shaving more meat off the cooked carcass, "And if you relax, she'll probably come around soon?"

"But what about Riley? He might need a hospital."

"Definitely not a concern, the guy's not man enough to have a man face him," Xander grimaced, "And you can always do some witchy levitation thing to get him down the hill."

"Xander, why are you being such a stinker," Willow sighed, frustrated.

'Two things, one of which is that I'm going to be packing out more than I came in with, and that takes priority over Riley. Second, let me tell you how the Harris luck is going to unfold: Buffy's going to regret everything or pretend to so everybody dumps the blame on me like they did almost two years ago." He looked pointedly at Willow, "Then she'll cling to the Lab Rat, I'm going to be persona non grata. You'll always choose Buffy over me. Tara is your girlfriend and so her loyalties are understandably committed. Giles, no matter how bad Buffy mistreats him, will follow in the wake of the slayer. And that as history shows, is standard operating procedure. So I'm not too excited to break camp and help speed up the demise of my remaining ties to the world. Where's the incentive to help?"

"Xander," Giles sighed, but at least looked like he understood, "We can't carry them both, and Riley needs a hospital."

"Carry Riley, I won't let anything happen to Buffy," he replied, "If I get bored, I'll see if the travois will carry her as well as my cargo."

"You're not letting us make use of that?" Willow asked, clearly unhappy, "Why not?"

"Because I'm not leaving the stuff I got from the demon bikers, Will," he told her, "The little stuff is probably worth twenty thousand, and once I get the bikes to town and detailed, we're talking my college education, with a decent living."

"I can't believe you'd put money over a person's life, Xander," Giles remarked, "What happened in that castle?"

"I'll tell ya sometime, Giles, but let me tell you all something now," he sighed, "You all think of me as the inconvenience, at best the go-for. I'm the townie nobody wants to be seen with. I still love all of you, even Tara, I guess. I don't know Tara except that she is very nice and has a beautiful aura, but I love her because she makes Willow happy. But I won't fetch donuts, commandos or your version of Buffy."

"So you're gonn sit here and brood?" Willow assayed.

"Nice try, Wills, but I had the woman of my dreams with me for three days, and now she's dead. Shouldn't I have a chance to mourn?"

"It's not the same, and besides, what happened to you and Anya?"

"She decided to leave town, it was too dangerous for her."

"Please help us, you can always come back up."

"Fine," he sighed, then muttered, "I haven't tried this on a human before, so it'll hurt…" They were confused when he went over to Buffy instead of off-loading cargo from the travois. Crouching down, he placed his hands on her forehead and over her heart, silently casting his self-healing, but trying to transfer some of that energy to her. A few seconds later she came around and he stepped away, tossing her some clothes.

"H-how?" Giles asked.

"I never cast any of those spells you rag on me about, Giles," he smiled, satisfied with his non-explanation, "And now that you have a slayer to carry Riley, I'll make it easy on all of you and keep away for the next few weeks. Your Buffy knows where to find me if something comes up and needs muscle."


	3. Chapter 3

Shadow Prince (3?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. Nope. None are mine. 

Xander gave them an hour head start, then began packing up things; rather than have it out with a large bear, he cut loose the deer meat and hastened down the mountain, collecting items he hadn't gotten to. He was surprised he hadn't really considered looting demons and vamps before, but didn't think it was a realistic plan for financial security.

Nearly a month passed, and Xander kept his eye on the gang from afar that next week, watching as Giles set up the shop and hired Buffy, Tara and Willow part-time when they weren't at college. The motorcycles, the current biker lair and a few lesser items at the castle were easy enough to sell; to his surprise most of the bikers had their titles and registration, Willy explaining they used them as chits in bets. What he couldn't sell openly, he fenced through the bar owner, creating much good will on the side of the informant. As his birthday neared, and he felt pretty confident in his spell abilities and physical ability to cast many in an evening, he managed to fund the materials with which to electrify and telecom his new place, as well as go into his accounts for college and such.

He was practicing the simple maintenance of his invisibility and stealth cloak when he noticed Buffy entering a warehouse. Maintaining his spell, he slowly followed her in, and noticed her attempt a rescue of a monk when a high-class call girl in red began attacking the slayer quite successfully.

Xander raced across the floor, extended his magic at some cost, to include the monk he now freed. Xander checked the wounds and sighed, knowing this would really wear him out later. Putting his hands on head and heart, Xander made him sleep then poured healing energy into the man. Satisfied that the monk would live, he was surprised that his cloaking remained in tact, though the hooker seemed to be pounding the crap out of Buffy. Deciding to make a run for it with the monk, at least as far as the car, Xander fireman-carried the monk down and out of the building as Buffy crashed through a window and raced into the night.

'Okay…I guess I'll take you to my place, Mister Monk,' Xander considered as he drove off.

The next morning, Xander had fed and rested enough to wear he entered the room of his unexpected guest, who was tied down but awake.

"I won't tell you anything!" the monk yelled at him, causing Xander to wince.

"Hey, hey, hey," Xander responded, holding up his hands, "I saved you from that woman last night, at least keep the volume down. Healing takes a lot out of me."

"Why would you heal me?" the monk asked in confusion, but quieter.

"Because since the slayer was trying to save you, I thought I'd help her while she got her butt kicked because of you." The monk fell silent for a moment.

"Anyway, I don't know why you're in Sunnydale, or why you're being tortured," Xander continued, "But you'll need to rest at least a week, I'm not all that used to healing people. If you promise to not run away until we've had a chance to talk, I'll let release your bonds."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll keep you here until you're healthy, then kick you out on the street, but don't worry, it'll be daytime."

"Why?"

"Because if I kick you out at night a vampire would eat you, and my good deed will be meaningless."

"Alright, untie me," the monk sighed.

"Okay," Xander replied, "Can you tell me about the gal trying to torture you? What it'll take to put her down since Buffy was having a hard time of it?"

The monk stared at him, and the food, then began to eat.

"That one is known as The Beast, or Glorificus," the monk whispered as if not to be overheard. Xander jotted notes, and nodded encouragement.

"What kind of demon, and how is it killed?"

"I shouldn't say…because you might learn too much."

"I've been with the slayer for four years, and if you need her help, you'll need her support group as well."

"Support group, Watcher, magic users for fire support, myself as extra muscle…the ones who killed a demon that was just doing the Ascension thing?"

"Oh."

"How do you kill it?"

"We don't know."

"Why is she here in Sunnydale, going to open the Hellmouth?"

"No, not the Hellmouth."

"Okay, next question, why are you here? Are you planning to talk to Buffy? The slayer?"

"Yes."

"Okay, do you want me to arrange a meeting with her? Have her come by?"

"Feeling weak…"

"Okay, let me take that food tray."

Four days later the monk had reawakened, Xander having slipped a healing potion to him in his juice.

"Sorry about the sleep, I didn't know the potion would put you to sleep as well as heal you," Xander told the man, "It's been four days. This time, no extras in the food. I didn't find much on Glorificus, except references to a hell goddess. Is that who we've been talking about?"

"Y-yes," the monk looked around, noting that the sun was starting to set through his window.

"I have some clothes and such on that chair over there; you'll be less conspicuous if you put those on," Xander told the man, "And then we can go see the slayer about all this."

"I don't know if that's the right thing to do," the monk told him as he risked eating again.

"Why not? The slayer is now at risk, and you seem to have been interested earlier."

"I don't know what to do."

"You're welcome to stay here a few more days, but at that point we'll go see the Slayer and figure something out. But I need some type of answer to my next question, does this have anything to do with the kid that Joyce and Buffy seemed to have taken in?"

Xander watched as the man froze up, and Xander nodded.

"That's it, huh?" the castle owner nodded, "Something to do with the girl. Who is she? An exchange student?"

"She's the slayer's sister," the monk told him.

"Buffy's an only child, I've known her for four years. You need to come clean, maybe we can find a solution, or at least a plan before we contact them."

The monk sighed and explained what he did know.


	4. Chapter 4

Shadow Prince (4?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

Another week passed, and the day before Xander had noticed Buffy moving back into her mom's house. Brother Marcus after pouring out everything he could remember on the subject of Glorificus and the Key, which wasn't much, surprisingly proved quite adept on computers. Xander put him to work researching on the Internet for any and all references while training ever more intensively himself, meditating and reaching within the memories not originally his own for possible solutions.

"Marcus, we've been at this for the week you've been up, and I was so desperate I even read all that weird reflection rites stuff," Xander shook his head as they ate an early dinner and went through the raw data, "And we're not much further along than when we started. We have a hell goddess that is like a super slayer, but insane. She doesn't seem to have any magic that she uses; it's all muscle. She's not human, but seems to be putting off a big magic signature. Is her human body a host, or a physical shell like an orb of thessula? Is she like the Key? Created to hold something and the body is a connection?"

"The Key is what it appears, now, though thanks to you I've filled out the computerized records on her better," Marcus replied, "But tied to that form and soul, is the core energy itself, so if the Beast is the same, then separating might be either a very good idea, or a very bad idea."

"What do you mean, Marcus?"

"Well, my friend, we might be saving all of the dimensions, but lose this world if her energy is big enough to open the Hellmouth."

"Like an atomic bomb that lets Hell on Earth," Xander sighed, "But what if we could lure her to an island? Then it would only be ourselves that might be in danger."

"Ah, you understand, good, but we'd have to get her there. But what if she doesn't count as a soul? How else might we eliminate her if we can't separate her?"

"Could we use the Dagon Sphere you told me about to contain her in it as energy? So even if she'd not a 'soul' if she can't hit us, she can't hurt the girl."

"It would take research, Xander, but it should be able to do it, but what do we do with the sphere?"

"If we had the money, I'd spend it to have the sphere launched into space at the sun," Xander sighed, then had an idea, "Hey, if the Key opens the path to other dimensions, or in this case all of them, does it exist in all of them?"

"I don't know, but if we could tap her energy to create a portal, maybe we could push the Beast through it and have done with it."

"Wait a minute, Marcus, there was a portal to a Hell dimension in Los Angeles, but I don't know if it can be activated…"

"Ah, a very good idea, my friend, and we hopefully wouldn't need the Key for that."

"I don't like endangering children…"

"And that is what she is, Xander, even though she is the Key, she is a human child."

"What is her name, by the way? And how many people actually know her?"

"I honestly don't know the name. The spell was a modification of a spell we found that called on Chaos magic, but we combined it with one giving form to the energy of the Key for containment. And with the power of the Key, it changed the minds of any who would have been affected within two degrees of separation. Except you for some reason."

"Well, like I told you before, I'm still guessing that since the spell Alexander cast was just about the same time as yours, I was close enough to the casting, and genetically near-identical to the caster, that your spell probably just rolled around us as ours moved passed yours, two types of divine magics not interfering with each other."

"I know, we've been through this, and I wouldn't be alive and we wouldn't have progressed at all if it were otherwise. I merely believe that if we know more about that moment, we might have a better answer than we do now."

"Well Marcus, I think we'll finally head over to the Magic Box and discuss this with Rupert, then see if he has any research materials that would prove helpful."

"How is your magical training coming along?"

"I think as of today I'm finished with what I can do without becoming one of them and that isn't going to happen," Xander replied, "So I might charge some amulets in the next couple of weeks, things that will help the others and yourself to avoid being squished by Glorificus if we run into her, and boost if I start to run low on energy."

"Yes, I'm not comfortable with most magic, but I vote against the squishing," Marcus joked, "Should I wear the clothes and hat you gave me? I do not want to attract the attention of the Beast."

"Yeah, go change, I'll get ready and we'll head over now, I have my…outfit ready, I'm surprised the Count had that kind of humor."

The car headlights turned off down the street from the Magic Box; he was surprised at the ominous quiet that seemed to pervade the area so early in the evening. Looking toward the store, he saw three demons head into the store, a group of six vampires watching and moving in as this happened. Alighting from the car, he turned and asked Marcus, "Can you drive?"

"Yes I can actually," the monk blushed, "As a boy in Prague I wanted to either race cars or fight evil."

"Now you can do both," Xander smiled as he activated the stealthy mist spell he'd learned quite well.

As he reached the vampires about to enter the store right behind Tara, Xander pulled out a long elegant silvery sword from his sheathe, and smiled as the soulless monsters sensed something off, but not quite.

The sword slashed at full strength, causing the undead to react in shock as the impossibly sharp instrument of death sliced through two necks before cleaving two-thirds of the way through a vamp the mass of an NFL linebacker before it was halted by chains it wore criss-cross over its torso.

Xander laughed, whirled in the direction of the swords path and caused the weapon to spin around and behind him to finish off the large bloodsucker. Inside, the other three relatively young nearly fled into the magic shop, pushing Tara aside as she warns Buffy. Xander walks in to the shop as a camper of hicks pull up next to the just-arriving Marcus.

Buffy struggles with her demon, the vampires turning toward the door as Xander lets his cloaking to fade into mist and reveal him as he drops the spell as he ends one of the three vampires. Pausing to offer Tara a hand up, he smirked large, the overall image he presented awing the vampires.

Buffy was grabbed by a second demon, as Willow, Dawn and Giles kept throwing things at a third. Summoning up his telempathy with as much force as possible, he turned toward the vampires.

"Leave," he ordered, pushing as much fear as possible behind his words.

Forward he moved, stabbing the single outnumbered demon in the throat and twisting as he pulled away toward the Lei-Ach demons that while lifting the slayer up to prevent her from using her superior strength and speed, did not have any idea what now they faced in the immaculately if antiquatedly dressed humanoid in front of them that ordered vampires. Large, flowing cape with red lining, a red-lapeled gentleman's coat and a gold-trimmed black vest, tight black pants and high black boots, the blacks as deep as moonless midnight and the reds the scarlets and highlights of blood itself. The very image of a Prince of Darkness, the cold stare promising death.

author's note: he looks like the Dracula from Castlevania

"Ah, Slayer, we meet anew, and I tell you this, for the price of a kiss I shall rid you of these two as well as the soulless ones."

"How do I know you won't turn on us when they're out of the way?"

"I give my word as a Scooby on the sacred Hostess, Buff," Xander smirked and using his hyena speed as Buffy looked shocked, stabbed the one on her right directly in the throat, then repeating his move with the vampires outside shouted "Duck Buffy!" and whirled three hundred sixty degrees for a double decapitation that ended the immediate threats.

The Maclays stared in disbelief, and Marcus quietly walks in and sits down at the research table.

"What in god's name were all those things?" Mr. Maclay.

"Lei-Ach demons and vampires," Xander replied, graciously offering a hand up to Buffy, "Lady Summers, good evening to you." He kissed her hand like he'd seen done in movies, "And thus your debt is paid."

"I don't understand," Maclay responded, Tara looking guilty.

"I'm not sure I do either," Buffy replied, looking at Tara.

"I'm s-s-so sorry," Tara answered, starting to cry "I was, I was trying to hide." Willow comes forward and kneels by Tara.

"I didn't want you to see what I am," Tara almost whispered.

"What do you mean, what you are?" Buffy asked, "Please explain."

"Demon," Maclay answers when Tara doesn't, "The women in our family...have demon in them. Her mother had it. That's where the magic comes from. We came to take her home before...well, before things like this started happening."

"Ah," Giles nodded at Tara, "You cast a spell on us, to keep us from seeing your demon side. That's why we couldn't see our attackers."

"Nearly got us killed," Buffy responds looking at Dawn.

"I'll go," Tara said quietly, "I'm very sorry."

"Wait! Go?" Willow says in confusion, "I, she just did a spell that went wrong. It-it was just a mistake."

"That's not the point and it's not your concern," Mr. Maclay tells Willow, making the mistake of pointing in her face, "She belongs with us. We know how to control her ... problem."

"I'm bored," Xander feigns melodramatically, stepping forward. He turns to Tara, having had time to thoroughly compare the hicks with his own dead beat relatives, and the controlling look in the father's eyes, "Tara do you want to go?"

"No," she said quietly, Maclay about to say something when Xander grabbed the man's pointing finger.

"I should break this, since you could have hurt my Willow," Xander told the loser, "So I'm only going to say this once." Everyone in the room but the hicks felt the magic channel as Xander readied his telempathy, and looked at the Maclay family. "Leave forever."

"Whew! Ya know, Tara, I never realized how much the mojo takes it out of you," Xander remarked to the girl next to him, "And that's the first time I've actually tried that on so many people. So what was so special about today they wanted to take you away?"

"M-my birthday," she said.

"Really? Mine too, does scaring away the bad family members count as a present?"

"Yes sir."

"Sir?" he responded, looking confused. He heard Marcus clear his throat.

"You still have the spell going, Xander," the monk told him, causing an embarrassed look to appear on the face of the 'Dark Prince.'

"Oops," he smiled, dropping the glamour that made him look different, but the clothes still fit quite well. The Scoobies gasped, except for a still-wary Buffy, "Hey Buff, what's with the threatening pose?"

"You don't feel like Xander," she stated, but didn't attack, "Who are you?"

"I'm Xander Harris, and I'm not commenting on what you feel."

"You know what I mean!"

"Okay, why don't we lock the front door, sit down, you tell us all how I feel, and the brainiacs can guess? Oh, by the way, this is Marcus, I saved him while you were fighting at the warehouse."

"That was you!" Buffy exclaimed, "How? I never saw you, then he was gone."

"Let's go through twenty questions, and then Marcus and I need to discuss that with you and Giles. Giles?"

"B-Buffy, once he is seated, we'll all sit and discuss this, as we do know Alexander has moved into the castle."

"Okay, Buff, now that you're not threatening me, how do I feel?"

"You feel like Faith…or Willow…"

"I feel like a hot babe, no wonder my dating history sucks."

"No, I mean like a Slayer or a Witch…"

"So, you see me, a slayer, a witch…how about a guy with an earring singing in a coffee shop?"

"Oh! That would be Giles!" Willow smiled as she guessed, then frowned, "What else?"

"Okay, that all adds up to one thing…"

"Th-the unity spell?" Tara guessed, receiving a big smile and nod from Xander.

"That's part of it, but why don't you think back to what you saw up in the mountains, and add that…"

"Why don't you just tell us, Xander?" Giles asked, "And save us a lot of trouble?"

"I want you to understand, but not simply fly off the handle and go 'oh, bad guy, slay him,' Buffy," Xander smiled with disbelief, "'Cause if you figure it out in pieces, and we talk about it, it won't be as overwhelming. So, mountain me?"

"Xander told me that he'd gotten all of the soldier memories back," Buffy quietly recalled, "and all the benefits of being the Hyena."

"Eep!" Willow squealed, flashing back to that bad moment between her and Xander.

"Relax, the spirit itself isn't here, Wills," Xander sincerely told her, "And I'm sorry for the way it treated you. Okay, we have Hyena, Soldier, Unity, and a guy with links to bats."

"Bats?" Buffy asked, "links to Dracula?"

"Ah, my favorite slayer, remember that you and I were both linked to the master, I mean Dracula, and I had the unity link with you, so when this all happened, I got a double-whammy of Dracula's whatever," Xander lectured, polishing a ring as though he were polishing glasses like Giles, which Dawn noticed.

"Hey, you're acting like Giles!" she said pointing at the two men.

"I seem to have picked up his mental framework for dealing with this stuff, and actually like reading," Xander admitted, "He was the mind in the spell after all…"

"And your strength comes from the slayer?" Giles asked, "Or the hyena?"

"Well, I think the hyena, mostly because the slayer stuff kinda kicked the butt of all the vampire stuff?" Xander considered with a nod, then seeing waiting looks, continued, "You see, we're talking about mystic links, revived magics from faded but not eliminated states, and through the unity spell I have my link to the world of Vamp Willow."

"Eep," Willow squeaked a little softer and controlled, blushing red at the experience of dealing with her other self.

"But that's an alternate reality, isn't it Xander?"

"No, because I have some really disgusting but luckily way faded memories as being Vamp Xander. Remember, I got a lot of this from Anya, but she was wrong about the alternate. If it were, she would have been stranded, in that universe. Cordelia was already dead, and where was the alternate Cordelia? And Anya's spell with Willow was reaching through the fabric of time for the necklace. Anyway, so I have two links to Dracula, a link to Vampire Me, a Unity spell link through Willow to Vampire Me because of Vampire Willow."

"So what's the slayer got to do with that?" Dawn interrupted.

"Good question, the slayer slays vampires, and so it went after the mythic vampire links as they were starting with the boosting, but since all the vampires in question were sired as master-levels by The Master, or in Dracula's case, were centuries old, I'm able to wield most of the magic spells of the Dark Prince, but due to the slayer and hyena, I'm drawing from my own reserves, not demonic ones."

"Wow, so what magic can you do?" Willow asked.

"I can do most of what Dracula's publicists seem to say he can do, though I can't fly up on top of buildings yet," he admitted, "And as you saw, I'm able to transfer some energies into boosting the body's own capabilities."

"I must caution you on the use of darker magics, Xander, they can overwhelm you," Giles responded, sounding like a confession, "Do be careful."

"Oh, they're more like innate capabilities, Giles, once cast, at least here on the Hellmouth, it takes almost no energy to maintain," Xander also admitted, then with a serious look turned to Willow, "Wills, because of the mystic links, and because your first real spell was a soul curse, you really need to concentrate on discipline and avoiding the automatic use of magic; on the Hellmouth, you'll become addicted to the dark magics without even noticing it, and I can feel them bending towards you more than the rest of us."

"What? I'm careful…"

"You need to be really careful, and if I learn magic beyond the type I use now, I will need to be equally careful, and most importantly, Tara doesn't want to lose her Willow."

"Oh, yeah," she smiled at Tara, "If Tara will help?"

"Of course I will," the girl agreed, then began the questions, "So what else did you get from the unity?"

"Not a lot, I'm a solid back up for Willow, Buffy and Giles, but I don't have the memories, though I have excellent ability in Romany, Latin, British English, French, Turkish, Russian, Italian and German, though other than Romany the accents are flat. I'm guessing from Dracula, but it seems to carry Giles overtones, which makes me feel better about it. And I seem to like wearing these clothes, or at least a better class of darker attire."

How did this come about, Xander?" Giles finally asked the question.

"A messenger of the Aesir dropped by and cast a Blessing to redress the balance between Natural and Unnatural energies, and I was at the epicenter. So, with a spell reclaiming or restoring I got the bonus prize."

"Good Heavens."

"Yeah, so I finally caught a break, and have been working at since that night, and have mostly figured it out," Xander said, mainly to Giles, "But in spite of what I've told you, it is almost entirely based on my own anecdotal experience."

"And now you talk like Giles," Dawn stated, shaking her head.

"So am I tentatively accepted as to my identity and current non-hostility, G-Man?"

"Except for that last comment, I suppose we shall."

"Um, were you all taking Tara somewhere for her birthday?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, the Bronze," Willow said, "Why?"

"I'm going to suggest that Marcus and I have our talk with Giles and Buffy while the rest of you go on ahead. Don't worry, they'll be along in just a few minutes."

"You're not coming?" Willow asked.

"I want you to be comfortable with who I am, not who you used to think I was."

"Oh," Willow considered, not quite sure of the second part of the remark.

"I-I think you should be there," Tara suggested, then add quietly, "You said it didn't matter if I'm part demon."

"You don't smell anything but human, Tara, though that strawberry citrus hair conditioner makes my brain smile. Right Buff?"

"Yeah, his brain is smiling, I can see it from here," the blonde slayer smiled as she took an exaggerated look in his ear.

"Ah, a palpable hit," Xander smiled, then turned back to Tara, "Thank you for the invitation, we'll see after this discussion whether I'll be able to make it. But, Buff, I meant if you focus your slayer senses on Tara, do you get any kind of demony vibe?"

"No, so either there isn't any, or it's so little it doesn't matter anymore."

"Okay everybody, let's get to it."


	5. Chapter 5

Shadow Prince (5?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

"So, Xander," Buffy uncomfortably said as the others left the Magic Box, "what is so important you couldn't include the others?"

"The fact that your sister has only existed a couple months and I'm the only one of our group that has no 'implanted' memories of her," Xander calmly replied, "And that she is real now and exactly what she seems, your little sister."

"Oh," Buffy said, sitting down abruptly, "I knew there was something wrong, but…even after the meditation spell I thought she was real."

"She is real, Buff, the nature of the spell is such that reality has been changed to include her, then taking the memories of those here and elsewhere, I'm guessing, filling in the blanks of how she would have existed, then any mentioning of her, and so on. As well as records and such."

"Fascinating," Giles considered, then gestured for Xander to continue.

"So, this is Brother Marcus, possibly the last of the order that has been keeping The Key away from Glorificus for centuries."

"Glorificus?" Giles asked, "I-I believe Buffy encountered her a week or so ago."

"Yeah, that's when I grabbed Brother Marcus and took him to the castle for healing," Xander nodded, "Glorificus herself is a hell goddess that was banished to this world, whose existence is tied to a human host for centuries. The Order was under attack, and decided to send The Key to the Slayer for protection in a form she wouldn't think twice about defending."

"Dawn," Buff lightly sighed in realization, "A sister."

"That's her name? Pretty."

"You didn't know?" Buffy asked, then received from Xander and Marcus their facts, and the speculations and considerations from their research.

"Good Lord," Giles quietly remarked when they were done, "But she's real now?"

"She is Buffy's little sister, Giles," Xander stressed, "And she's in no way guilty of anything, even reading Buffy's diary."

"Hey! How did you know she read my diary if you don't have memories?"

"Isn't it what you'd expect from a television show family, Buff?" Xander chuckled, "And she's your sister. And how do you expect a bunch of Eastern Europeans to have had an idea of how to 'template' Dawn. And seriously, she's Dawn, now, and not just a big ball of green energy. We have to protect her, she's a Summers girl."

"How do we protect her?" Buffy asked quietly, "Glory kind a, handed me mine the other night."

"Well, remember the part of our discussion about separating her into two parts? Opening portals? We have options, Buff, and if I find the human host I'll kill it away from the hellmouth. I won't let this hell thing hurt you or your family."

"But the host is human, Xander…"

"That's why I'll do it, so your slayer essence won't suffer for it."

"How has this human host survived so long," Giles asked, "I think we would have recorded something at least."

"Maybe, but Brother Marcus let me in on the secret of keeping the Beast from manifesting through the host," Xander told him, "Apparently, Glorificus cannot physically manifest until the host is at least sixteen years old, but because the host will eventually die, her competitors in her dimension made it so that as soon as an offspring is produced, she will transfer to it."

"Indeed," Marcus emphasized, "So it was a matter of ensuring that as each girl reached the age of consent, she simply married earlier than usual, and it would pass to her daughter, the use of magic ensuring that the child would be female."

"Oh, I see," Giles remarked, nodding.

"I don't," Buffy said, "Wouldn't that just be passing the buck until something screwed it up."

"Ah, and that's what happened, Buff," Xander told her with a sigh, "The Romany family who would cast the spells on their daughters to ensure the containment were all killed by a certain group of vampires about a hundred years ago."

"Angelus?" Giles pressed, just to make sure.

"Oh yeah, him, Darla, Spike and Drusilla," Xander laughed a cruel laugh and shook his head in dismay, "Who knew it was my destiny to be at the hell mouth when it all came together again."

"Pardon?" Giles asked, "Why are you destined Xander?"

"The Romany clan was Kalderash, and the reason I was named Alexander, is that ever since the exile of the Beast to this realm six hundred years ago, the Lavelle family has named its eldest daughters and sons for their Duty, 'the protectors of man.'"

"What does Angel have to do with that Xander?" Giles pressed, though both he and Buffy showed on their faces that they'd guessed.

"I was named Alexander Lavelle Harris, and when Angel caused the gutting of my family a century ago, we lost track of four-year-old Alexandria, and when we no longer had casters to counteract our spell of deflection placed to keep the Beast's identity unknown to any others, we now suffer the same interference."

"What do you mean, Xander?" Giles asked, "Some kind of obscurement spell?"

"Yeah, Vlad was fascinated by all of this, and recorded what he could, but apparently we know that after the scattering of the family, we could no longer tell which of us contains the Beast."

"But it would have to be someone between the ages of sixteen and," Giles considered, "and perhaps thirty, as according to what you've said then this Glorificus should already have taken over the human host."

"Indeed the ages are correct, Mr. Giles," Marcus interjected, "And while the hell goddess is obviously female, the host might not be."

"Might not be?" Buffy asked, "I thought you said Glory already took over the host, it sure looked that way."

"Indeed Honored Slayer, but Glorificus seems to require the mental energies of humans to maintain her presence for any length of time. The fact that she seemed about to 'suck out my brains' as Xander describes it, means the host probably is in control much of the time."

"Do we know what this host chick might look like?" Buffy asked, "Any ideas?"

"Sorry Buff, but we figure that it's very possible that Glory has a male host."

"Why's that Xander," the Watcher asked, "You have evidence?"

"No, but considering that poor Romany would have had our typical treatment and poverty when family are not around, the lost daughter and her successors might have had kids at early ages before Glory could take over, then passed it off to themselves as 'hysteria' or bad fumes or something. So without knowing it, they continued to keep Glory from taking over."

"And," Marcus said, picking up the thread of conversation, "a boy being born as the host would mean no real way to assure further transfer. And if an only child of moderately successful parents, would be less likely to have, uh, passed on the duty even if a male might be able to."

"Oh, I get it," Buffy said, "How far can we narrow it down before the spell will blank us entirely? I think the actual headache I have is from thinking about this." She stopped and glared at a smiling Xander, "Not just because I'm thinking, Xander."

"Okay, Buff," the man smiled, "We'll need to research a spell that can reveal anyone related to me in California, that are male and in that age group. So far we know it isn't me, since I was there at the same time as Glory."

"What will we do when we narrow it down?" Buffy pressed, "We can't just kill people because they might host a hell goddess."

"Well, then we figure something out," Xander considered, "I'm hoping that if we can narrow it down, we can cast detection on each one, and whichever one keeps backfiring is the likely target."

"On the other hand, it could work the opposite, and give you a false reading due to the existing spell," Giles countered, "But I suppose we must try every avenue. Is there anything else you can add, Xander? Marcus?"

"No," both men replied, then Xander continued, "I guess that's it, Giles. Marcus and I will come back tomorrow and help research with your materials if that's alright?"

"Certainly, though I never thought you'd be the first to suggest a session of research," the Watcher smiled as the men got up and moved to leave, "Though to keep a low profile, perhaps you should wear something less conspicuous."

"Um, Xander, could I, uh, talk to you in the training room?" Buffy asked, then exhaled, "I, uh…"

"Sure, Buffy," he smiled comfortingly, "I'll be out in a minutes, Marcus."

"Okay, Buff," the newly empowered man softly encouraged once they'd closed the door. Buffy walked until she was about six feet away before turning to face him.

"What did, uh, that weekend mean to you?" she asked.

"Everything, but I'll never speak of it again if it makes you feel awkward or mad."

"It doesn't, it's just that half of me was with you, every part of her exulting in the fighting, and the uh, togetherness, not just, you know. And the other was clinging to Riley and liked being, I don't know, sheltered."

"And?"

"And I don't know where we are…"

"It's your decision, Buff."

"I don't know what to feel or think?"

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, why would I force it?"

"I need to know how you feel."

"You've known that since that weekend."

"What if I decide not to pursue anything, can we go back to being the way we were?"

"Not really," he replied, watching as her eyes saddened a little, "I'll be your friend, but I'll never be 'one of the girls' ever again. Now that I'm able to do and be more, I won't be pushed aside like you and Willow have done since her and I were kissing in the factory."

"We wanted you safe and normal," Buffy tried to explain.

"The only spells Willow was able to cast was the soul curse, and sometimes fog like against the Jhe demons," Xander sighed, "She had nothing else to offer, except to give you back your boyfriend if he went evil again. And her boyfriend had better smelling which you never really took advantage of. So, Angel was the reason you kept Willow around."

"That's not true," she told him.

"And she would agree with whatever you told her was the party line," Xander continued, "But that's the past, Buff. I'm not mad, I discussed this with your Slayer half if you remember. I'm just not going to play 'one of the girls,' that's all. Like a younger Giles, we'll remain close friends but I'll retain my identity as a person."

"You do resent me," she glumly said, and he reached hands forward and touched both her elbows as he spoke.

"No, I'm just being even more honest than before, Buffy, and you know how I felt that weekend."

"I guess I have a lot to think about…"

"Yeah, I guess, but instead of talking it over with just Willow like you will anyway, why not talk to some one who might really understand, like why don't you ask Giles and your mom to dinner together. They'll explain seeing things from a different and experienced perspective, or just listen to whatever you might need to say."

"Oh, uh," she began, hedging and looking uncomfortable.

"I didn't mean talk about sex Buffy."

"No, it's not that, it's mom, she's, she's sick, something wrong with her."

"What! Is she going to be okay? Is it serious?"

"We don't know, Xander, the doctors gave her big pills to ease the pain, but there doesn't seem to be an opinion back on what the problem is."

"I'll be over tomorrow to see if I can help, no promises though, the only time I helped another human recover was you, and the normal ways of healing magic are so not going to happen."

"What are those?"

"I don't plan to cast an all-over healing spell while entwined in passionate circumstances with the Slayer's mom."

"Oh…oh!"

"Yeah, but we'll see if I can do anything for her, it'll have to be just before she's due to take more pills, that way we can tell if it's me or the meds."

"When can you come over?" Buffy asked hopefully, "Any time is good."

"Hmm, I'll swing by around ten, I guess, just before I head here to research. Will you be home? Today's what? Thursday? Do you have Friday classes?"

"Yeah but I can skip them…"

"No, go to class, but when do you get out?"

"I can be back at 12:30 or so?"

"Alright…oh wait, is your mother still at the gallery? Maybe we should wait until after she gets off in case this knocks her out?"

"What, why would it do that? I was fine."

"You're also the Slayer, and it is basically my energy transferring over to help her system charge itself out, kinda like a month of healing all at once, while the healing spell will take more energy out of me to end what shouldn't be there. Hmm, come to think of it, I am going to be wiped out, maybe you both should come by my place around one in the afternoon."

"Why your place?"

"A little more defensible, I have really large beds to collapse in, and when your mother feels up to it, she can look over my collections and discuss what her consignment and handling charges would be to liquidate some of it. I'm thinking of buying the construction company I'm working for."

"Why would you do that?"

"I actually like the work, I just got a promotion, and if this super hero gig works out, I'll miss it. So I want to stick with it as long as I can, then who knows? Maybe I'll learn enough to where I can do a Bruce Wayne and get the projects and pass them on, hire all-Sunnydale crews for projects of a night knowledge nature, that sort of thing."

"Really?"

"Probably, I don't know, Buff, I was just starting to get a life when I 'super-sized' it."

"Yeah, I see what you mean…"

"Oh, and Buff? Don't tell the Wiccas, okay? I really don't want to deal with Willow until after we're done. Maybe they can watch Dawn?"

"Hmm, yeah, I can check?"

"Great, now I gotta go, you go have a good time and wish Tara a happy birthday from me, okay?"

"You're not going?"

"Nah, too much to do, I wanna go over the various spells and see what I might be able to cast, how much it takes out of me, that sort of thing."

"Could you use my slayer energy? Take whatever you need…"

"Don't know yet, and I'm just learning to transfer from me to another; I don't know if I want to learn how to take life energy from somebody. It's too much like vampirism, very much of the yuck."

"Oh, but don't spell casters borrow energy all the time?"

"They can, but remember, my mojo is more like your slayer stuff; it's part of me, not something outside of me. And I'd be drawing your essence and maybe your soul energy. I don't mind giving a little, but taking…"

"Oh, I understand now."

"You know something else, Buff? Other than the weekend this is the most we've talked since I came back from my road trip. If you decide you just want to be friends, I'm going to expect us to talk like this more than once a year, okay?"

"Yeah, I like it, Xan, it's … wonderful actually."

"Sure is, Buff. Sure is."


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow Prince (6?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

I still can't believe this doesn't have a crossover… Thanks to Grey Wizard for providing beta reading from this point on; it keeps me on my toes.

**Castle Alexander, 5 PM, Friday, November 10th, 2000**

"Oh, good day, Miss Summers, Mr. Giles," Brother Marcus greeted the faces he recognized, "And this must be Mrs. Summers. I am Marcus, I'm helping Xander. He's in the Brides Suite preparing the spell as we speak. If you'll step this way?"

"Um, Brides Suite?" Joyce asked as they followed the man into the large home of Xander Harris.

"Yes, he figured that if you were exhausted from this, it has probably the most comfortable bed in the castle."

"Oh."

They reached the indicated location in just a few minutes, finding a place decorated as a cross between Turkish Hareem and a Baroque Venetian Palace.

"Oh my," both Giles and Joyce murmured, the gallery owner continuing to voice their thoughts, "The value of the tapestries and the paintings…"

"Hey, Mrs. Summers," Xander smiled, "We can talk about you liquidating some of my extra possessions when we're done. Did Buffy explain what I'm attempting?"

"Yes she did," Joyce nodded, "But you're in no danger are you?"

"Not that I know of," he told her then winked at Buff, "As long as I don't have to resort to plan 'B'"

"Xander!" Buffy choked, caught between shock and laughter as she remembered his 'passionate embrace' comment.

"Any way, please come over here and sit with me in the circle here, and we'll get started. The rest of you, please remain on the other side of the room, I need to concentrate."

Four hours later, Joyce regained consciousness in a large bed, feeling exhausted but pain-free. Her hand was held by her sleeping daughter, now awakening as Joyce herself stirred.

"Mom? Are you alright? How do you feel?"

"I-I, I guess I feel alright, a little tired, I don't really remember anything after Xander's hands started to glow and warm up. Did it work?"

"We don't know, Xander passed out after a while, Giles is watching him in his room."

"Oh, can I sit up? Maybe find a bathroom?"

"Ah, bathroom, I'll need to walk you there, Xander's only had time to upgrade the one in his suite. You up to it?"

"Yes, I'll have to be. Um, why am I wearing a silk night gown and robe?"

"The spell kinda made you and Xander sweat really bad, so I found those in a drawer over there."

"They're quite nice," Joyce smiled, "Now show me this bathroom."

Twenty minutes later, Joyce left the master bathing room and reentered the bedroom where the others were gathered around a very pale and still-asleep Xander Harris.

"Is he going to be okay?" Joyce asked, "He didn't do too much, did he?"

"I-I don't think so, Joyce," Giles assured her, "But I do believe even with his new capabilities he pushed to his exact limits. His breathing is regular, and I woke him up very briefly and made him drink a liter of vitamins and juice he'd prepared ahead of time. So he should be up tomorrow."

"Good, that's a relief, I won't have him trade his life for mine," Joyce said, and noticed how Buffy looked at the sleeping young man, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm out of energy myself. Buffy, can you walk me back?"

"Sure, mom."

Two days later, a very hungry and cranky Xander awoke, showered and threw on only a pair of the count's tight pants before heading downstairs to the kitchens. The clock said it was about five in the afternoon, and he heard many familiar voices in the area of his next meal.

"Hello everyone," he said quietly, causing most of them to start. He walked past to the fridge, grabbing one of his liter-sized vitamin and protein mixtures, "Don't mind me, 'warrior needs food, badly.'"

"How are you feeling, Xander?" Joyce asked, "Are you okay?"

"Hmm, mm mmm," he responded as he nearly guzzled his drink, "I'm fine, just need food. The question is, how are you, ma'am?"

"I haven't had a headache in two days, and I feel back to normal again."

"Two days? Is that how long I was out? Hmm, guessed right, then, cool," he smiled tiredly as he hopped up to sit on a counter, "And I sensed it was either a tumor or aneurism thingy behind your eye just under the temple." He pointed to show. "You might want to have it checked, just in case, I'm not a doctor, though I think I smoothed it out and got rid of the extra whatever there."

"Thank you, Xander," Joyce told him, getting up and giving him a big maternal hug, "Though I'm kind of disappointed that we won't go to Plan B."

"Mom!" two Summers shouted in shocked embarrassment as the others including Xander smiled or laughed. Xander blushed slightly, then accepted a cup of hot tea from Tara.

"I-It promotes healing and recovery," she told him, "and virility."

"Tara!" Willow and Xander laughed, the others joining in at the soft-spoken girl's well-timed remark.

"Thanks, Tara," the young man said, then noticed as did Joyce how her daughters were eying Xander. Shaking his head, he activated the special Dracula Restore Spell, and found himself immaculately dressed in the ensemble from the Magic Box on Tara's birthday.

"Enough staring at the eye candy, girls," he joked, "The only thing I'm interested in right now is food, and lots of it."

"Xander," the girls mock-threatened as the mood upturned to general happiness and normality such as it was.

An hour or so later, as the night seemed to quietly settle over the town, Willow and Tara were about to bid their adieus. As the Summers and Giles made sounds of leaving, Xander took the Watcher aside for a moment.

"I think we should tell them what we know," he pressed, "And make it clear we consider it a good thing and that as far as all of you are concerned things happened the way it all happened in your memories."

"I see you don't include yourself in that?"

"No memories, Giles," Xander sighed, "But look at it this way, I'm the one who can remain objective in a way; no alterations to my mind. It'll just be a matter of sitting down with everybody, revealing all of our Sunnydale secrets up until the arrival of Dawn, so that we can analyze the differences, but also help me to make a conscious connection to the girl, her first…real…friend."

"It could be devastating, you know," Giles cautioned, "But as she is already being sought, knowledge would give them greater protection."

Xander looked across the room, noticing Buffy looking horrified at the thought of what she'd overheard as about to happen. He walked over to her, caressed her left cheek with his right hand.

"It'll be okay, Buff, a bit rough, but okay," he told her sincerely, then lightly hugged her. Ending the hug, he turned it into a side-hold as Giles ushered everyone together again. Xander reached deep for an appropriate style of wording.

"Everyone, a new family member is something to be rejoiced over, and the more unexpected, the more we should make sure to welcome that person," Xander told them seriously, meeting their eyes, "And memories are to be treasured, because, taken as a whole, they define who we've been and guide us toward who we may become. Now, I think Buffy, then myself, then Brother Marcus will reveal what we know and what we believe. This will be emotionally trying, but it is true, and the person we reveal is the person you remember."

And with that, the lives of Dawn Summers, Joyce Summers and the Scoobies changed in perception. When Dawn tried to run from the room, Joyce had clung harder to her new daughter she remembered a lifetime about, not letting her go, and telling her it didn't matter. Buffy reinforcing the hug, Tara saying she'd thought she was half-demon and doomed to loneliness and laboring for her family until her life began again only a few days ago, and Willow jibing Dawn that she still can't blame her chess habits on the monks. The tension was still there, sadness and uncertainty about the situation, but not about Dawn herself.

"So you see, Dawn, the only one here that doesn't remember you is me," Xander told the girl as he crouched in front of the Summers gals, "and I'll get to know you and Tara better in the future, so in a way we'll have an advantage in a second start. That's a good thing right?"

"Yeah, I guess, so what now?"

"Now, I'm considering sending all of you gals away during holiday breaks," Xander told them seriously, "Enough of you to keep out of harm's way, and deal with it while you're on working vacation."

"Working vacation, Xander?" Joyce asked.

"Sure, just because I'm going to liquidate some of these doodads doesn't mean I won't be collecting less excessive and less expensive replacement items," he smiled at Joyce, then looked at the other young women, "So I figure that while you all have fun on the X-man's dollar, those who assist Joyce in the work, will also get shopping money."

"Okay, we're in!" both sisters asserted, then blushed at everyone else's laughter.

"Where are you sending us, Alexander?" Joyce asked, "Anything in particular?"

"I don't know, that really is up to you, Joyce, once you see what's here. I like a lot of it, but I'd like to take the excessive and replace it with more elegant items, and beyond that, I'm not all that sure. Maybe just tone down the colors, go for…authentic storybook. I'm wondering if the Romany might be interested in any of it."

"If you swing by the gallery tomorrow, we can make the arrangements, Xander, but I want to take my girls home, now."

"Sounds like a good plan…Joyce, and happy 'Mother's Day.'"


	7. Chapter 7

Shadow Prince (7?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**Tuesday, November 23rd, 2000**

"Well, that about does it, Alexander," Joyce told her largest client. , "We've managed to inventory and catalog pretty much everything."

"It's been a long couple of weeks, between the Carlton job and this," the young man smiled., "It'll seem like a vacation only going to the site five days a week."

"Mm, tell me about it," Joyce smiled., "But we've sold two of the tapestries for an unbelievable amount."

"Oh, the Kalderash Tapestries," Xander remembered., "Yeah, those wre were nice, and you didn't do so bad yourself."

"I'm not fighting ten percent;, I'll be caught up with the bills, and maybe be ahead for a month or so," Joyce mused., "Feels nice."

"Good., I'm glad I'm not the only one to benefit from all this."

"No, and you're sure we can't pry you out of Sunnydale for the weekend? I'm sure the girls would love to have you along?"

"Has Buffy talked to you about it?"

"The trip? No, not really, but she's happy for a break," Joyce remarked, then ventured, "Xander? Why don't you hang out with Buffy and Willow any more?"

"I've been busy, Joyce," Xander demurred., "And I'm hoping to figure out a way to keep Dawn safe."

"Let me be more direct;, what's happened between you and Buffy?"

"Why do you ask? Is she okay?"

"Yes, but whenever I mention you, she seems to give off mixed signals, quiet and thoughtful, or a little sad and changing the subject."

"Have you asked her? I won't talk about it until she talks to you first, Joyce. Buffy doesn't know what to think of me, and I told her she should talk to you and Giles."

"Sounds like a relationship problem?"

"That's a good guess, but Buffy has to figure it all out on her own, so I've put that part of my life on a back burner," he told her., "So, when's your plane leave for New York?"

"Tomorrow morning at seven., Rupert's driving Willow and Tara, and I'll just take our car," she told him, not pressing him on the Buffy subject., "I hope you'll take some time off while we're gone."

"I'm thinking about it…"

"Well, Amy," Xander told the rat Willow had handed to him for caring while she was away, "We're we're going to see Giles about changing you back. I have many books on transformation, and even have a few ideas. I hope we don't disappoint you."

Three hours later, Giles had gone over many preliminary checks, and had determined two things: that the spell that had interrupted the Hell Mouth and the vampires, seemed to have greatly weakened the residual magics, Hecate apparently not having an interest in the matter.

"So what do we do now?" Xander asked., "Do we proceed with the reversal spell?"

"Yes, but do we have anything of hers?" Giles asked., "It would make things much easier."

The At that moment, as if following a cheesily scripted TV show, the front door exploded inward, and a very angry, black-dressed Catherine Madison stormed into the room. Xander reached into his pocket and as the woman drew back her hand to hurl magical fire, Xander pointed the ferula-gemina at the witch and fired it.

The beam hit the woman, splitting her and her magical attack in two, the charged energy scorching both versions' right hands as she/they collapsed to the ground from the system shock.

"Yeah, we I guess we do have something of Amy's," Xander quipped., "Let's tie and gag both of them, then cast the spell."

"Good idea, do you think the door is reparable?"

"Give me about an hour, and I'll have it rehung."

"Very well, please do that while I prepare everything else," Giles directed., ' "And what else have you picked up over the years, lad?" '

Amy was very happy to be back among the human, though dressed in male clothing. She was not happy to see her mother.

"What do we do with her?" the young Miss Madison asked., "Can we just bind her powers?"

"Yeah, that's probably the best bet," Xander considered for a moment, then added, "Then maybe a memory spell on the evil one?"

"Oh?" Giles and Amy both considered his suggestion thoughtfully.

"Yeah, maybe if we're lucky, it'll dilute her angry thinking once she's merged back," the new magic-wielder contemplated., "And if that's also her insane half, maybe she'll have a chance to recover after this."

"Hmm, I suppose it's worth a try," Giles nodded, "especially since the alternates are entirely unpleasant."

"Yeah," Amy sighed, "Let's get this over with."

They awoke the two Madisons Catherines in different rooms, to ensure a better observation. Xander found himself talking to the angry, insane Catherine, who turned out to be the one possessed the spellcasting ability; luckily he'd guessed correctly that the two traits would be together. Casting a sleeping spell he'd learned, that individual was now asleep. Tiring, Xander Harris called in the other two, and they discussed their findings, placed the woman in the circle and proceeded with the binding of her powers, and the blanking of her mind of all bad and angry thoughts.

"I'm exhausted, Giles;, you'll have to merge them again, 'cause I'm pooped," Xander exhaled., "I'm not used to these regular spells."

"That's quite alright, Xander," Giles told him., "Miss Madison, would you lend me a hand?"

"Certainly, Mr. Giles," she responded with a tired smile of her own.

"Just Giles, would be fine."

"Then I'm Amy, Giles."

"Very well Amy, let's see if we can make your mother better, shall we?"

It was close to ten o'clock when both Xander and the now-singular Catherine Madison stirred into consciousness. Giles checked first on the young man, then on the somewhat confused woman.

"You bound my powers," she said simply., "I, I can't really feel them any more."

"Other than that, how do you feel?" Giles asked her, only to be interrupted by Amy.

"Yeah, mom, feel like killing everybody?"

"Ames, that's not really with the helping," Xander chided, then slowly walked over, adding, "But please answer the question, Mrs. Madison."

"I don't really feel anything, good or bad;, I just feel just tired. You bound my powers, so can you please untie me?"

"Certainly," Giles responded, having searched her earlier for weaponry and finding none., "Do you have any idea what you'll do now?"

"No idea., do Do we even have a house, Amy?"

"Apparently daddy paid off the mortgage before he moved to LA for his job, but it's still there," the girl cautiously replied., "Xander's been paid to keep the grounds up when it isn't rented out."

"At least that's something…is it occupied now?"

"No, um," Amy responded, unsure of the situation but not seeing any of the obsessive or angry qualities that had been in her mother's eyes even before the days of the body swap, "Uh, do you want me to go with you?"

"Um, you might want to pick up some clothes and stay with friends until you can trust me again," the bound witch told her, standing up., "But whatever you did before the binding seems to have mellowed the anger I had. I feel like I've slept the time away instead of spending it in a statue listening to a shape-shifter ramble on endlessly about its army of Turok-Hans beneath the Seal. It sounded like one of those crazy, would-be world conquerors you'd find in the old horror movies."

"P-pardon me," Giles asked, clearly unsettled at the last part of her statement, "Did you say Turok-Hans?"

"Yes, uh, I did…"

"Giles, Rupert Giles."

"Mr. Giles," she responded, "It went through its speech several times over the last…how long since the school was blown up?"

"Almost a year and a half."

"That long, complaining about a vampire with a soul, and the rest of you, and bragging endlessly that once one more big imbalance for Light occurred and the finding of it found someone gullible enough to sacrifice the blood of a someone 'close to their heart' one' the seal would open and allow the its army to come forth."

"I think it would take at least the blood of a whole person," the tired-looking Catherine Madison commented thoughtfully with a sigh.ed, "It seemed like it was gloating at the thought that one drop alone would be enough for a single vampire, and something about a first sacrifice allowing it to empower a darkened soul to complete the ritual with either its blood, or a Champion's…I don't remember much else, I was crazy at the time. Though I do remember you" she gestures gestured at Xander, "looking at the cheerleading statue I was trapped in and calling it creepy when I looked out at you."

"That was you!" Xander considered., "Wow, I shoulda guessed."

"Would you have let me out?"

"No, but if Giles had mentioned binding of powers, then we probably would have considered that."

"Oh, um, okay," she replied, then turned to Amy., "Can you show me where the bathroom is, Amy?"

"Sure…mom, I'll help you."

"Giles?" Xander said, and repeated to get Giles' attention., "Drac's books mentioned several old variations of vampire…"

"Indeed, if they really are down in the Hell Mouth, beyond a Seal of some sort, we are all in grave danger if this thing succeeds."

"Shape shifts, lurks underground, and hates Angel," Xander smiled tiredly at the thought of a second yet another Big Bad., "Sounds like that First Evil thing again. What do you think?"

"Hmm, it would fit, but we should probably take a trip to the Hell Mouth to find this Seal., perhaps, once we get a look at it, we could better locate has information on it that might help us determine a course of action."

"Yeah, then I'll drop in on Dead Boy and see if his Fang Gang knows anything about these older type of vamp., it's It's about time for my monthly visit, anyway."

"I've been meaning to ask, if I may…"

"I visit Faith."

"Indeed?"

"Indeed."

"Well done, Xander, and how is she?"

"Adjusting., the The Mayor wiped out any evidence of the murders, so she was only guilty convicted of assault. I'm also thinking of finding a law firm to look into an appeal. I read the transcripts, and there's a lot there that doesn't seem to fit; I'm not a lawyer, but there seems to have been a lot of things that just didn't fit."

"I know believe I should stay here, so would you mind giving Faith my best hopes for her improvement? And that she's doing the right thing."

"I will, Giles, I; think it'll make her happy to here hear from you."

They watched as the two women returned, at little a bit more at ease with each other than before.

"Both of you alright?" Xander asked., "You've both kinda done Rip Van Winkles for a couple a of years."

"Yeah, but we probably should go and get ourselves settled in," Amy replied, then quickly bit not tightly hugged Giles and then Xander., "Thanks for getting me back in human form., I'm just glad all that exercising as a rat means I'm in super shape now."

"You're welcome, Amy," Xander told her as Catherine Madision Madison offered her hand and thanked them for her sanity.

"The rest I don't know about, but I don't seem to have aged the four years I was trapped, so we'll see."

"Well, how about we drive you home, stay a few minutes and Ames can stay over at my place until she figures stuff out," Xander suggested., "I have plenty of rooms."

"Okay," both women replied and nodded.


	8. Chapter 8

Shadow Prince (8?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**Los Angeles, Day After Part Seven, Wednesday, November 24th **

"Hey, Dead Boy," an unexpected voice called out as Angel led Darla out of Lorne's to take her to The the Trials., "Miss me?"

"Oh god, not now," Angel sighed heavily, but couldn't see Xander Harris anywhere.

"What is it Angel?" Darla asked.

"I guess nothing, just…"

"Ah, come on, our time in Sunnydale meant nothing to you?" the young man kidded as he lifted the 'stealth into mist' spell, and stonily looked at the blonde., "And with a face I never thought I'd see again."

"You've met?"

"Yeah, you could say that. She was responsible for me having to dust my brother," Xander replied quietly, beginning to look like his hand would draw the sword he bore., "I thought you'd dusted her."

"Wolfram and Hart brought her human self back, Xander," Angel quickly informed the young man dressed like a nobleman of Angel's human time., "She is the human, but has the memories of the demon's crimes."

"Hmm, I guess you're right., I can hear her heart…"

"You can? What's happened to you?" Angel asked in confusion, sensing that Xander was among the living., "Never mind, I have to take Darla somewhere to try and get her healed."healing?"

"Angel," Darla spoke up., "The way he's dressed, could he be the Knight your friend said we'd meet?"

"Knight?" Xander grimaced and looked at Angel., "Telling stories again?"

"What? Oh…uh, no," Angel asked replied, remembering the hospital incident, then turned to Darla with an unhappy look., "I guess it is possible."

Angel explained their encounter with Lorne and guided him back in, where Lorne looked up from a reading, pointed to Xander and mouthed 'that's him' to Darla and Angel.

"So I guess you're who we're looking for," Angel grimaced, which naturally made Xander feel better., "Why are you in Los Angeles, any way?"

"Visiting Faith," he replied noncommittally, which caused a surprise look to show on Angel's face., "I was the other one who wanted to help, if you remember."

"But she almost killed you!"

"But she almost killed you, too!" Xander mimicked, then sighed., "And it's the right thing to do. I'm going to try finding a law firm to appeal."

"Good luck, a law firm named Wolfram and Hart are involved, and since she ticked them off…"

"Wolfram and Hart? The name's familiar," Xander replied, and as they headed for the site of the Trials, Angel filled in the Sunnydaler on the Fang Gang's various encounters with the lawyers. And as the young man combined it with his knowledge from reading Dracula's account ledgers and journals, a plan began forming in his mind.

Xander parked the car as Angel and Darla headed inside. The Trials had left the young man exhausted and not a little sore, the fascinated 'butler guy' for the most part healing him enough to ask questions about what Xander was.

As the souled vampire and the now-healed human approached the hotel, Lindsey smugly showed up with a security group and Drusilla, of all people. Drusilla oozed over to Darla, and as the Fang Gang were unable to interfere, the nut case made her move on Darla.

The man from Sunnydale had activated his stealthy ability upon first noticing the newcomers, and quietly walked into the building. Drusilla turns turned as if noticing something for the first time, and growls growled.

"The doppelganger who killed my William—" she sneered, looking around and seeing nothing.

Xander coldly decapitates decapitated the mad vampiress with his sword, dusting her while maintaining his cloak. The assembled humans and Angel see this saw that and that Darla disappears disappeared just as suddenly. Lindsey is was about to give orders when Xander uncloaks uncloaked in his full Dracula garb and face, grabbing the very concerned Lindsey.

Lindsey asks demanded to know, in a quavering voice, who he is was, and Xander replies replied with a very light version of Dracula's own accent, "Alexander Tepes, Shadow Prince of the Hell Mouth. , and And the delightful vixen with the hair of moonlight belongs to me, human. And, please, don't be tiresome and look for us, we'll be heading to my home as soon as a debt of pain is repaid to Angelus."

"A debt of pain?" Lindsey asked, waving the security men out of the building upon recognition of the newcomer's name.

"Minor, yes, and resolution of a debt of money regarding his family."

"Can I watch?"

"Who are you to ask this favor of me?" Xander arrogantly returned.

"Lindsey MacDonald, Wolfram and Hart," the man said, handing over his card.

"Ah, you have handled my family's matters before, my antecedent Vladimir's in particular before he turned things over to me."

"You're Dracula's son?"

"Decedent would be a closer term, but successor for sure."

"In that case, I'm sorry we didn't know you were coming, or we'd have arranged this encounter at a different time."

"Oh, at least you're decently respectful for a young one so young," Xander allowed., "I had intended to pursue some business after the weekend, but I'll state it now, since you're here. I want the case against the imprisoned Slayer to be overturned, or at least have her paroled into my custody."

"I don't know if that's possible…"

"I have confidence in you, young man, and besides, I'm intending on using her against either Glorificus. That troublesome hell goddess bitch just won't leave town no matter how many times I hand her, her ass. The game grows wearisome, and since I like the feel of the Hell Mouth, I do not intend to return to Europe."

"It could cost a bit…"

"Here's forty thousand American dollars," Xander said, with a grimaced of distaste, taking it from his coat pocket and tossing it at the feet of the attorney., "And I'll expect you at my residence at sundown next Monday, with the appropriate paperwork to transfer anything remaining of Vlad's assets to me, with yourself as my assigned agent and contact, or I'll leave my affairs in the hands of your Rome office and express my annoyance to your superiors."

"So you're not friends of Angel and his—"

"HA ha ha ha ha!" Xander laughed., "The little Watcher, the broody dead boy, the princess…hardly…" He then grew serious., "I am somewhat fond of the princess, however. Try not to hurt or kill that one if you can, or I'll become annoyed…So where was I? Ah yes, the Slayer and the paperwork, Mr. MacDonald, and I'll allow the transfer of another one hundred grand thousand dollars if you can have her with you at our Monday meeting."

"I'll let the higher ups know as soon as I leave, sir," Lindsey ingratiated himself., "And the, uh, pain…"

"For the opening, yes, you may stay, but after, no, it is a private matter," Xander told the lawyer. Turning to face Angel, he hands over fifteen dollars., "That is the equivalent of the ten pounds owed to your grand childe, William, before Alexander Harris dusted him, though I'm told rent was owed to a Mr. Harris, so I leave it to you to pay your familial debts. However, you once struck my human form quite hard, full vampire strength barely clipping the jaw."

Xander telempathed fear in the direction of the withdrawing WH security, Angel and Lindsey as he, at using full hyena speed and strength, returned the blow of the pre-Graduation sting operation. Angel flew back in the air and fell against the stairs of the Hyperion entrance, a gasp and whimper of the unexpected pain clear to all.

"Do not come back…Lindsey, until I see you on Monday night," Xander smiled as the nearly-wetted lawyer fled out the door. Letting the restore take effect at last, Xander sighed and plopped down on the steps next to a recovering Angel as the others warily remained indecisive as to attacking the guy who Cordelia and Wesley recognized as Xander or helping Angel.

"Magic sure takes it out of a guy," Xander exhaled, as he allowed his normal face to appear, then turned to Angel and grabbed the money clenched in his hand., "Now we're even for everything, Angel. Cordy, get him a bunch of blood and some ice for that, Mr. Clean (Gunn), get the first-aid kit out just in case, Watcher Guy, please get me a decent whiskey, a double with no ice for that, and Darla, I know it's a lot to ask, but since I twice saved your life, could you please rub my temples. I feel a real bad head ache returning."

Surprisingly, they all did as he asked, Angel looking a little more put out by that even as he winced about the ice Cordelia put on his jaw.

"Oh, be quiet, you big baby," she told the vampire., "Use the straw and get this down quick."

As Angel complied, Cordelia flashed a big glare at Xander, who ignored it as Darla had grown bored and turned the rubbing of temples into a head massage. Wesley returned with two doubles, one he kept for himself as he worked up the courage to question Xander. Gunn, meanwhile, forced Angel's jaw back into place, and another quart of blood forced on him by Cordelia finally kicked in the extra healing necessary to allow clear speech.

"Why did you hit me?" Angel asked.

"You hit me during your sting operation with Faith."

"That was nearly two years ago…"

"You left me on the streets of Sunnydale, unconscious, near Rest View Cemetery."

"You what!" Cordelia yelled at Angel, whose ear was right next to her.

"Wait, Cor," Xander interrupted, "I consider us now to be even, for everything, so this time, let it go."

"Fine," she reluctantly mumbled., "But what was all that about? The magic or whatever?"

"Oh, Dracula came to Sunnydale, Dracula and met his dissolution at the hands of Alexander Harris, who took over the castle, the tomes and other things."

"Dracula!" the humans in the room all exclaimed at once.

"Yeah, and he'd been practicing the mojo quite a lot since you Scourge of Europe types knew him, so I've been able to pick up a lot of useful stuff."

"What about the name?"

"Oh, I thought since I want nothing to do with the Harrises, I'd change my name, and thought I'd take Drac's name as another trophy, especially keeping my first name."

"Xander?" Gunn stated in confusion.

"Short for Alexander," Wesley lectured., "Which means 'protector of man.' An extra nail in the coffin, so to speak."

"Did you keep the middle name, Doofus?"

"Your middle name is actually Doofus?" Gunn asked again, then caught himself and waved them all back in apology.

"No, it's LaVelle, as in one of the families of the Kalderash Tribe of the Romany," Xander smiled, looking at a stricken Angel., "I found out following up on the Internet after reading through Drac's books, that the Potential slayer the demon Angelus took, was of my family name, beloved of us, a first cousin of my maternal great-grandfather. So when I say I consider everything balanced, I mean it."

"Why?" Angel asked.

"Because Jenny…Jana…of the Kalderash had to have been the Romany spirit that returned your soul through Willow's spell. It happened to be just in time to keep your uglier and stupid demon from killing Buffy. And because I lied to Buffy just enough for extra motivation to fight Angelus, your demon, and yourself, went to Hell for a little over a hundred years, at the hands of a Slayer beloved by a Lavelle and sent after you by him in time to save the world."

"Oh," Angel responded, the group quiet and Darla particularly so., "And what was that about Spike? And when did Buffy dust Dracula?"

"She didn't, Alexander Harris did., using Using magic that for a brief moment, he blessed the Hell Mouth. Every vampire within a couple of miles dissolved, Spike, Harmony, a couple hundred others."

"That takes a lot of power, Mr. Tepes," Wesley ventured., "If I might ask, where did you receive training in such powerful magics?"

"Oh, it was a favor to the Aesir, they wanted to rebalance Nature Natural versus Unnatural forces," Xander admitted, causing Wesley to down the rest of his drink and top off both their glasses., "But as to what else you've seen, standing at the epicenter of such a spell left me able to learn on my own, with power with which to practice."

"Well, at least your dress sense had improved," Cordelia jibed., "Now we just need to update it a few hundred years."

"Thanks Cordy, never change," Xander smiled at his affectionately-smiling ex-girlfriend, then turned to Darla, who didn't quite wilt as he looked her over.

"You, Darla, are the human soul plagued by memories of the demon," Xander told her, "You, the soul, weren't actually around, and I don't intend to let my distant cousins to find out about you. So the only punishment for you is to get a life away from Angel. He's not allowed to have another blonde obsession that leads to the Apocalyspe Apocalypse."

"What would I do?"

"Well, did you or your possessed body learn any languages or anything over the past four hundred years?"

"Yes, and I can even to read them.?"

"Know anything about Glorificus?"

Darla went pale., "Is the Beast here?"

"Yep, I wasn't kidding with Lindsey, Glory wants to end the world and all the other ones. Think you can at least come up to Sunnydale for a few weeks to help with research? I'll pay for your time, and you can stay at the castle until you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life."

I-I, sure," Darla said, suddenly starting to realize she might have to deal with existence., "Y-you're not going to turn me?"

"Turn you?" he asked in shock., "I'm human, with a few boosts, Darla. No turning." He looked at the others and noted they'd apparently been unsure.

"Do you need help, Xander?" Angel asked, finally removing the ice from his healed jaw hinge., "This sounds pretty big."

"Funny you should ask," the recently-empowered man smiled, then briefed them on all of the goings-on the last couple months, but not mentioning that Dawn happened to be The Key.


	9. Chapter 9

Shadow Prince (9?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

I still can't believe this doesn't have a crossover…

**November 29th, 2000, Sunset, Castle Alexander **

The limousine pulled up to the mansion, two dark sedans, one with California government license plates, in accompaniment. Two plain-clothes officers escorted Faith Wilkins toward the door, Lindsey MacDonald, Lilah Morgan and six bodyguards and staff in attendance.

Brother Marcus opened the door, dressed in one of the very expensive suits Xander had made him accept. Giles was in another, and it was he who addressed the group.

"Mr. Tepes is on his way down, gentlemen," Giles addressed them politely, then looked beyond the lawyers., "I'm afraid the civilian security personnel must remain outside with your vehicles. The legal staff and the State personnel can proceed this way."

He led them into what passed as a parlor in the front section of the castle, still large and very impressive on in its own right. Alexander came down in ten thousand dollars in worth of semi-formal attire and accessories, picked personally out by Cordy, for maximum effect. Faith especially would have been stunned, had she looked up from the floor.

"Thank you for letting them in, Rupert," Xander said as he entered the room., "Sorry I wasn't ready gentlemen, ladies and officers, I'm still moving in. Relocating this place here was a bit of a marvel. What exactly needs to be signed or done?"

"Well, Mr. Tepes," one of the officers addressed the youngish but in control man before him., "We have a set of papers to sign, then we'll remove the restraints when she's officially in your care."

"Have my attorneys looked them over?" Xander asked but as he looked at the Wolfram and Hart contingent.

"We have, Prince Tepes," Lilah butted in, using Vlad's title in such a manner as to indicate alltransfers had been completed., "And only your signature is required at three places, Your Highness."

"Very good, please find the appropriate places and indicate them for me, would you?" he smiled at her as if enchanted, and as she drew the others' attention he looked to an annoyed Lindsey., "So, Mr. Lindsey, you seem to have quite the qualified assistant here;, do you also have the rest of the paperwork with you?"

"Yes I have, Prince," Lindsey smiled back, casting a quick wink of satisfaction at Lilah's expense., "And in spite of the load, we only need signatures for identity affidavit, transfer to our firm from the Rome office, and a general agreement establishing our firm's new relationship with you as our client. After that, there's only the custody paperwork for Faith."

"Excellent, Lindsey, excellent," Xander intoned., "Let's be about it, I have to show the young lady around and perhaps squeeze in some shopping before the stores close."

Rupert Giles watched in amazement as Xander Harris oozed and bullshitted his way through the meeting, keeping it no more than ten minutes long before the law men departed.

"Lindsey, I'm going to read over the final piece tonight. Would it inconvenience your employers if you met with me tomorrow to go over any questions I might have?"

"Not at all, Your Highness., what What time would be convenient for you?"

"There's a little coffee place the young ones frequent, Mr. Giles will give you directions on the way out, but let's say…five in the afternoon, it's shadier then," Xander smiled a Richard Wilkins smile., "Oh, I didn't look, did you arrange the name change?"

"Yes we did, as per your instructions."

"Excellent, Lindsey., Mr. Giles? Please escort our guests? Thank you. Please sit in the chair next to you, Faith."

A few moments later, Giles and Marcus returned, and the well-coiffed Madisons separated from the walls where they'd looked like waiting legal assistants or such.

"Faith, you haven't looked up since you got here," Xander remarked as he stepped next to her chair, then crouched down to look at her., "Not even a smile for the Xan-Man?"

"What!" she quietly responded, looking up for the first time., "You mean?"

"I am Alexander Tepes, Faith, and until you're twenty-one, you're stuck with me and…Rupert, especially since, as to give you a better chance to work things out, your last name has been changed to Faith Giles."

"Huh? Really?"

"Indeed, Faith," Giles gently told her, crouching next to her on the other side of the chair., "We're all truly sorry about how we didn't help you the last time you were with us, but we'll make it up to you this time as you rebuild into the person you want to be. Though we need to leave immediately, if we're to outfit you for your own tweed jacket this evening." He smiled, getting up., "And it'll take you a while, but in time, you'll be able to prepare a wonderful cup of tea."

Faith looked in shock at the Watcher, unsure for a moment.

"I believe you were just game-point zinged by the British Guy, Faith," Xander laughed., "And you're not alone on the adjustment side of things. I don't know if you remember Amy Madison, but she was turned into a rat a couple years back, and is just getting back into the swing of things, and her mom had a bad way with the mojo, and she's recovering with us, too."

"So you're not alone, Faith," Amy told her., "And the fact that they're helping you, too, makes us feel we're not alone, either."

Faith didn't know how to handle her emotions, and with a hopeful but overwhelmed looked, sank into her chair and sobbed. Xander and Giles hugged her for a moment before the women moved in and took charge.

"Come on, Faith," Catherine said., "We all need some shopping, do the crying with happiness and confusion when we get back."

"Am I allowed?"

"Anywhere You can go anywhere in Sunnydale on your own, Faith," Giles responded with assurance, "or in a supervised capacity elsewhere."

The expedition greatly eased the burdens felt by the three women, with the three men keeping a safe distance except at payment time. The clothes were for the most part of a non-risque risqué nature, though that didn't preclude the purchase of things that made them feel feminine.

Amy insisted on maintaining her healthy muscularity, though the high metabolism of her rat-form seemed to have made her human metabolism a higher burner as well.

Faith was in food heaven when Xander brought three different meaty dinners at the food court just for her while the other two men carried everyone else's.

"So, how're the three of you doing?" Xander asked., "A little better, I hope?"

"Oh yeah," Faith responded, the other two smiling widely and nodding happily at the younger woman's reaction.

"Great, I'm glad to hear it," Xander smiled back as he drank a very large protein drink from the juice bar., "Do we need to stop anywhere else? A drug store or anything for other stuff Men Are Not Meant To Know About?"

"That'd be good," Amy laughed, as Faith smiled around a large bite of double cheeseburger., "I think there's one at this end of the mall, too."

"Cool, 'cause I have to head back soon, gotta get up early for work tomorrow."

"Work?" Faith asked., "What for?"

"I like it, and it's only for another three weeks," Xander told her frankly., "I might not go back to it, but instead concentrate on fixing up the castle."

"I thought you were going to buy the construction company?" Amy asked., "Why the change?"

"I just haven't decided yet., But if I do go ahead and buy it, though, I could see the three of you," he told the women, "Probably probably handling residential rehabs and such., Catherine could be on the office and real estate agent of things, and Amy and Faith to help 'clear the site' before the rehab crews show up. If we can get our euphemisms right, we might be able to give the slaying a great cover and make some friends and money in this town."

"I vote for that one," Amy said, her mother agreeing wholeheartedly., "And paying us a good salary and benefits would really be great."

"Count me in, maybe for the construction side, too," Faith said between bites., "It'd help me keep in shape and get some sun. They've been rousting us out at five in the morning, anyway, might as well keep it up until I'm ready to get back into the swing of things."

"I'm glad to hear you're going to prepare and train before getting back to the slaying," Giles beamed., "That's very mature of you."

"Um, thanks, Giles., I know I was in for only a few months, but I found I sorta liked routine, ya know?"

"Indeed I do, and after a week or so, we'll figure out a schedule toward getting you and Amy to pass your GEDs or perhaps attend a final year of high school if you can demonstrate enough progress."

"I've already started, I'm 'bout a third of the way through," Faith admitted., "And I thought you blew up the high school?"

"We did, but I think the students are bussed to Fondren High for now," Xander informed her as he leaned back., "I think they'll start rebuilding the destroyed third part of the Sunnydale Hellmouth High toward the end of next year. Unless, of course, we want to buy the Hell Mouth…Giles? What would we do with a ruined school atop the Hell Mouth?"

"I don't know, off the top of my head, but now that you mention it, it would at least give us some control over events. Perhaps you or Willow should use the infernal machine to research it?"

"It'll be a big job just clearing out the old stuff," Xander considered., "I might have to liquidate a large chunk of old Vlad's assets, to buy the company and the school. But we'd need to put something on it, or someone even someone in Sunnydale might get suspicious of paying top price to do nothing."

"So, Batman, is it too soon to ask for a raise?" Faith smiled, gaining chuckles and smiles from a Watcher and a Shadow Prince hoping her spirits would lift.

A moment later, she added, "How 'bout now?"


	10. Chapter 10

Shadow Prince (10?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

I still can't believe this doesn't have a crossover…

**November 30th, 2000, Sunset, Castle Alexander **

"My word," Wesley breathed as the Fang Gang drove up the drive to Xander's castle. "I didn't quite expect an actual castle for some reason."

Angel visibly winced in pain and discomfort as he drove closer. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop you off here," he told them halfway up to the house. "The demon and every part of my body feel like they're filled with holy water."

"Understood, Angel," Wesley nodded as he opened the door of the now-stopped car. "Mr. Harris, er, Tepes, did say the place had been the center of a Blessing by the Aesir, so I suppose even dust blown off the place would be inimical to vampires."

"Wes, just get out of the way so the boss can get goin' already," Gunn told him as he, Cordelia and Darla pressed by, "Where ya headin', DB?"

Angel grimaced at the abbreviated nickname. "I think I'll check in with Giles at the Magic Box. Call me and let me know the plan."

"Gotcha, man."

The four humans walked the rest of the way to the front of the house to find Faith talking to a young woman about the same age.

"Amy?" Cordelia interrupted, and received a smiled greeting. "This is Amy, she turned herself into a rat to escaped a witch hunt a couple years ago," she explained to the others. "Wow, you're certainly buff now."

"Thanks, Cordelia, you seem to be doing pretty well yourself," the young witch smiled back. "And everyone, I guess, knows Faith Giles?"

"What!"

"Good Lord!"

"The Slayer chick?"

"Slayer?"

Amy smiled at the responses as she turned to Faith and jibed, "I guess with your rep, I'd smoke, too."

"Hey! I'm tryin' ta quit, Minnie…"

Cordelia was about to snipe something, but instead asked, "Minnie? Amy why…oh, never mind. Where's Xander?"

"His Highness is in the parlor with mom and Marcus," Amy said with rolling eyes. "In and to the right. They're probably discussing plans for the high school land purchase."

"Mr. Tepes is buying the Hell Mouth?" Wesley asked in amazement, then frowned as he entered. "That just makes too much sense."

"So the Shadow Prince has his own high school?" Gunn asked as he guided Cordelia and Darla into the estate. "You sure this guy ain't evil?"

The door rang as Angel entered the Magic Box. Willow looked up from the cash register and smiled, "Hi, Angel, the others are here. How are you?"

"Fine, Willow," the vampire smiled in greeting, looking further in to see the rest of the Scooby Gang busy researching. "How's everybody doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Angel, how's LA been? I think we should start emailing and calling at least weekly to stay in touch."

"Why, Willow, I thought you just liked girls," Angel joked, the fact of which shocked Willow more than the content. Angel turned and found himself noticed by the others. "Buffy, everyone."

"Wow," Dawn joked before Buffy could reply. "We were noticed, too, everybody. Hey, Angel. How's LA?"

"Good, Dawn. You keeping your sister honest?"

"Don't know if it's possible," she responded airily with a gesture toward her older sister. Xander had told her that Angel had changed enough to be treated civilly, and that any wrongs her memories recalled really didn't happen, so she could let herself be forgiving. She'd liked the idea, and of him treating her like a full member of the group, especially now that he'd become 'Shadow Prince Guy.'

"Dawn," Buffy mock sighed, clearly the four days of vacation and helping Joyce in New York had lightened her spirits quite a bit. She smiled a friendly but not wistful smile at her former love. "Hey Angel, glad to see you again. Where's your group?"

"They're at Xander's place, there's some kind of magic on the place that causes every part of my body to scream in pain and I'm not even halfway up the drive."

"Wow, that's something," Buffy scrunched her face in consideration. "I think I'm going to move Mom and Dawn in there until it's safe again."

"So, how are you?"

"Fine, I guess. You have any ideas on what we're facing?"

"No but…you know about Faith and Darla moving in to Xander's place?"

"You mean Xander's House for Wayward Women?"

Tara loudly closed her book and stood up. "Ohmigod! That means I'm late for the Meeting!"

"What meeting, Tara?" Willow asked with a concerned look.

"The Wayward Women meeting! I'm Treasurer!"

"The—hey!" Willow choked as her paramour broke down and laughed, leaning into a snickering Dawn.

"Xander's been a bad influence on her, I'm guessing," Angel observed to Buffy, but was also smiling broadly.

"Yeah, we're doomed," she lightly laughed. "He's probably been practicing a slapstick routine with Willow when I'm not around."

"He better not," Tara mock-admonished, then reached out and tickled Willow with one hand, causing the redhead to squeal. "At least, not unless I'm there."

"Tara!" Willow gasped. "Y-You hussy."

"Only yours…and no slapstick with the Shadow Prince," the blond smiled as the two young women snuggled.

"Just what did happen in New York?" Angel asked. "And can you slip any of it into Wesley's coffee? He's broodier than I am sometimes."

"Now," Giles said, having locked the store door and drawn the shades, attempted to turn the content, if not mood, to more serious matters, "Angel, children, let's exchange information so we can then socialize afterwards, shall we?"

General assent, with the occasional snicker at Tara's antics, allowed the now-reenergized group to sit and share information. 'Xander was right,' Tara observed, 'The humor whammy really does work on these guys.'

The next hour was spent with Angel revealing the few scraps of information he'd pinned down on the First Evil, and on Glorificus, most of which strengthened the speculations of Xander and Marcus. But the important thing, as Tara noticed, was that in spite of the bad blood between Giles and Angel, they, like the rest of the group, seemed to be working to their strengths.

"Hey, Doofus, playing real estate magnate?"

"No, Queen of the Harpies, just making things potentially safer."

The two smiled and hugged as friends as the others relaxed and at Brother Marcus' gesture, made themselves comfortable, noticing cheese and fruit plates, tea, coffee and sodas available.

"Yo, Bat-Man, what's the agenda?" Gunn called out as Amy and Faith entered the room and joined them.

"Well, I thought with only one brainiac with us," he smiled and gestured at Wes, "us regular thinkers might see what we come up with as ideas for dealing with Glory and Firsty. I don't think Marcus and I have come up with anything much, though I did buy the Hell Mouth today."

"So you did buy the school, Xander," Cordelia asked with amusement. "You gonna salt the earth and build a Hostess factory on top?"

"Hmm, that's so much better than my idea of digging a big cross-shaped crater, filling it with holy water as a lake blessed daily to counter the evil and make it uncomfortable, if not impractical, for a group of demons to open it."

"A holy water lake, Mr. Tepes?" Wesley smiled. "You're a lot more imaginative than I remember." He chuckled, "Though the unique way you had for questioning that zombie should have clued us in."

"What zombie gang?" Amy asked. "I haven't heard this one."

"It was quite impressive," Catherine contributed, snickering as she saw Xander beginning to blush. "I watched part of it from the trophy case. Xander was being chased by a bunch of zombie gang members complaining about how he'd driven down the street until a big mailbox took off a zombie friend's head. God, I hated you then, but at least you were entertaining, Xander. Unlike the rest of them whining about keeping you away from the Hell Mouth that night."

"Was that the night the Hell Mouth opened, B—Xander?" Faith asked. "Um, you know which night I mean."

"Uh, yes it was," Xander replied, a little embarrassed. "How did you find out about it, Wesley?"

"Just after Graduation, I stopped in during the day at Willy's Alibi Room and paid him for the 'history of the Hell Mouth' since Buffy's arrival, and about different independent groups of demon hunters to which I might attach myself," Wesley sadly smiled. "Had I the foresight to have done this before my arrival, it would have saved a lot of trouble, especially now that we all seem to be associating again."

"So it's true?" Cordelia asked. "Why didn't we ever hear about it, Xander? And did you do anything else we don't know about?"

"Ask Wesley, not me," the young man sighed with a little embarrassment. "It's not like I wrote it down. Wesley?"

"Oh, I did, I even brought a couple of copies," Wesley replied, then noticed Xander's horrified look. "But that's not what you wanted to hear, was it? I was bringing them to you, so it's up to you to decide what to do with them."

Gunn butted in, "Well, just finish telling us about the zombies, English."

"Oh yes, that. Apparently a half-score of gang member zombies led by a voodoo practitioner zombie named Jack O'Toole…"

"O'Toole!" Cordelia gasped loudly, "That psychopath! That's why no one ever saw him again after the day he threatened you. You killed him!"

"Not at all Cordelia," Wesley interjected to Xander's visible relief. "After he forced a rather large bomb in the school boiler room to be defused, he fed the zombie to Mr. Osborne while he was in werewolf form."

Xander immediately tried to regain control before the slightly exaggerated speculations became accepted as facts, but Faith gasped and joined in.

"Damn, X," she (for her) quietly interjected. "Remind me not to ever piss, I mean tick, you off again.

"Yeah, Bat-Man, that's cold," Gunn chimed in. "But funny."

"Now guys…"

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed, "Isn't the boiler room kinda under the library?"

"Indeed," Wesley asserted. "Had the bomb gone off when it was supposed to, it either would killed everyone fighting the Hell Mouth beast and none would have been able to close it any time soon, if ever, or the burst might have at least allowed many demons of some sort to enter this world from behind the beast, and would have spelt doom for those exhausted in the library."

"Wow," was the general consensus, leading to Xander being quite uncomfortable at the attention. Reaching under the blueprints and papers for the ruined high school, he drew out a tablet on which three different excellent sketches in heavy pencil, charcoal and ink, which respectively showed Glorificus from different perspectives and with different expressions of insanity.

"I was able to sketch and ink," Xander told them, "But I think Marcus' charcoal really shows the face dead-on. This is the human form of Glorificus, or Glory as she seems to call herself. She's stronger than Buffy, and maybe as fast. Our best hope is to draw her into a trap and get her away from the Hell Mouth and populated areas."

"Why's that, Xander?" Faith asked. "I don't think we got that far in catching me up."

"If we can use the ferula-gemina or some other means to split Glorificus from her human host, we believe she'll die. We just don't know if whatever form of energy she is composed of will explode. That's why we're trying to take it away from the Hell Mouth."

"Gotcha. But you sure about the explosion thing?"

"Not at all. We're just being careful, right, Marcus?"

"That's right, Alexander," the last known member of his order agreed. "The most likely result would be the death of both the human host and the Beast."

"From what I remember," Darla slowly and softly contributed, "vampires or other demons might be immune to the spell protecting the host, but they'd have to be at least as strong as a hundred year old master."

"Thank you, Darla," Xander smiled. "Do you think Angel's soul would negate the immunity?"

"I don't know; since it's not anchored as a mortal's would be, it's too close to call," the blonde human responded. "Maybe you should have that green karaoke bar demon in LA come up and read all of you, then have Angel follow any stranger that seems to come up regularly."

"Yeah, but how do we know if it's the Beast?" Xander asked Darla. "And what if Angel doeslearn who the human host is"

"If it is, and if the person is one of your lost relatives, have Angel kill him."

"That's harsh," Gunn commented. "But it makes sense to me."

"What about Angel's road to redemption?" Cordelia asked with a concerned look. "Wouldn't murder undo everything?"

"Save all the dimensions from mixing with the Hell dimensions, or killing one man screwed over by fate? It really isn't a hard decision," Xander noted. "Though it doesn't make a person feel any better about it. And if you get even one vision on the matter, it'll confirm the Guys Upstairs approve."

"Oh," Cordelia and Faith both sighed, Faith continuing by changing the subject for now. "What about the super vamps? Anything more on that, X?"

"Not yet. I was thinking maybe our patrol tonight might be a single trip to our favorite place, and maybe Catherine can help us find this Seal and figure it out."

"What if we run into the shape shifter," Wesley broached. "Do we have a means of killing it?"

"Well, if it's that First Evil, it should be a ghost," Marcus contributed, some of his Eastern European accent flavoring his words. "And if not, there should be enough of us to at least hurt it. Though try we must to keep blood off the thing, yes?"

"Good idea," Wesley nodded. "Anything else?"

"Marcus and I have discussed some of the magic-based Glory solutions as possibilities against it," Xander admitted, "But excavation of the lake seems the best plan against the Turok-Hans. Enough holy water, backed by sunshine a good part of the day, seem our best bets."

"Yes, avoiding an all-out battle against a breed of ancient vampires does seem the best plan," Wesley smiled. "So, shall we go over our facts once again?"

"Good idea, English, then maybe we can grab some dinner before heading over to Hell Mouth High."

The intrepid eleven (all but Joyce, Dawn and Amy, who stayed at the castle) made their way down into the ruins of the old school, with Xander-provided headlamps freeing hands for more important considerations. The way wasn't too difficult, as Catherine hadn't had much trouble in escaping when her encasement had vanished.

They looked at the Seal, having never seen it before, and not liking the vibes everyone was picking up from it.

"It's like a big manhole cover of evil," Buffy commented, folding her arms to off-set her very unhappy slayer senses. "It oozes evil."

Xander gestured and nodded to Marcus, who gently guided Willow and Tara into an alcove and whispered something in their ears. They turned off their lights, as Angel shook himself.

"My demon is radiating happiness, this thing makes it feel so good," Angel told the others. "I think I'll stand guard out in the hall, instead."

The group gathered around the Seal, and a minute later Angel stepped back in and moved around and away from the others.

"Now are you okay, Dead Boy?" Xander asked loudly, looking at the vampire.

"Yeah, I'm fine now, Xander. So what are you thinking?"

"Oh, this and that, but mainly I'm wondering if this Seal can be moved. If it's mystical, we can go somewhere and imbed it in concrete and build a skyscraper on top of it. Voila! Centuries before we have to worry about it again."

"It might have locational significance, boy," the vampire replied, looking unhappy about something before he began to move away, looking confused as he suddenly staggered and looked at him. "How -?" he began.

And then he was gone. Xander pushed pass the confused evil-fighters and moved quickly to the alcove where the Dagon Sphere was glowing a very angry red between Marcus and the two exhausted witches.

"Did it work?" he gently demanded, crouching to make sure they were okay.

"We think so," Marcus told him. "But for how lon the spell will hold, I can't say."

Buffy looked at the sphere and turned nervously to her friend. "Xander, what's going on? What happened to Angel out there?"

"Nothing, Buffy," the vampire said, re-entering the room and touching fists with Gunn to demonstrate his corporeality. "We arranged this while Xander was in Los Angeles. We didn't know if it would work, let alone when we'd get to try it."

"Why couldn't you tell us?" the blonde Slayer asked the vampire with a soul.

"The First can appear as any one who's died, Buffy, so we didn't know how much knowledge it can get from the dead."

"Oh."

"Yeah, Buff," Xander agreed. "But remember, we're a group, and we watch out for each other and cover each other's backs. Giles, do you know of a coven or group that can maintain a hold on this thing? We modified the capture part of the soul spell and used the Dagon Sphere, which was designed to contain primordial evil. But something on this level might need constant blessing and mojo to make sure it stays contained."

"You captured the, the First Evil?" Giles asked, awed and intrigued equally, as was Wesley. "That's extraordinary!"

"It's only extraordinary until someone drops the thing, Giles," Xander responded. "I wouldn't be surprised to see the thing show its face about again at some point, but at least we should have taken out Glorificus by then."

'We'll do our best,' they all thought as they made their way to the surface again.


	11. Chapter 11

Shadow Prince (11?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**December 10th, 2000, 10 PM, **

**Wilkins Memorial Hospital **

Xander entered Buffy's hospital room somewhat surprised to find her sitting up in bed, the doctor just leaving. Giles and Joyce were the only ones in the room, the rest of the group was had been spending the night at Xander's when they'd learned of an attack but had no further details.

"So, how are you Buffy?" the young mage asked with no little concern showing through., "What happened?"

"That's the strange thing," Buffy sighed., "I had just confronted this really weird vampire couple that didn't want to fight, the guy vamp even pulled out a gun on me and told me to stay away 'cause he didn't wanna hurt me."

"W-what then, Buffy?" Giles asked, placing a hand comfortingly on Joyce's.

"Then, like, these seven really mean-looking vamps came out of the dark, with their usual noise about killing a slayer Slayer. So I look back and see that the couple both have guns now, but are, like, just holding back but not looking happy. I start fighting the seven, and manage to dust three of 'em and hurt another one when I think one just threw a rock and hit me in the head. Next thing I know, I'm hearing a whole bunch of gunshots, the strange couple saying something about how uncool the others are to be picking on a girl, and not even one on one. Then the girl vamp complains about really hating guns. Next thing I know, I'm here and you guys are showing up."

At this point a nurse comes in and hands Buffy a note., "The couple that brought you in asked me to give that to you, or a stuffy British dude."

"Dear Slayer," Buffy read aloud after the nurse left., "Sorry we couldn't stay, but some times Watchers don't tell anybody about us. We don't kill people, we don't turn people, and we try not to let people get eaten while we're around. Good luck against the other vampires. Best wishes, the Snells."

"Good Lord, Happy and Day Snell…" Giles muttered in recognition.

"Well they might have been concerned-looking, but didn't really smell bad, just like they smoked too much pot," Buffy commented.

"No, Buffy, the Snells, not smells, are a rather unique pair of vampires. If I recall correctly, their turning being is a particularly odd moment in the history of the Aurelian line of vampires. William the Bloody, known as Spike, had drained Happy, then Happy's new wife, Day Da, after they'd dropped a cocktail of several types of drugs at Woodstock. The master vampire had then wandered off completely stoned, having only started to turn them, leaving the soul mates to be turned by yet another vampire named Lawson, on whom we have no records. For whatever reason, perhaps it was the psychotropic drugs, or the fact that two vampires turned them, but apparently their demons weren't prepared for either the drugs, or soulmates.

"Soul mates?" Buffy asked, thinking of Angel for a moment.

"Real ones, Buffy," the Watcher absently, "not like your affair with Angel. We've never been able to check on them to see what they really are. But we've never had any reason to believe they've turned or killed any people in the last thirty years."

"Vampires that don't hunt people and eat 'em?" Buffy asked., "Is that possible?"

"That's the mystery, of course," the Watcher continued., "Because on the four occasions when they were encountered by Slayers, the two twice shot the girls in self-defense, then barely got them to the hospital in time to save them, and left just short notes of introduction as you just read. Asking not to be hunted, as they do not hunt humans."

"And they're still around?" Buffy asked., "Why?"

"Because the other two times Slayers were trying to rescue children, and the Snells simply waded in to the vampires, berating the demons they killed as to how 'uncool' they were and uttering many other hippy-like characterizations. They helped save the children and the slayers Slayers before leaving town to avoid more conflict."

"So these two are good vampires, Rupert?" Joyce asked., "I find that hard to believe."

"I agree, but they seem to be uniquely pacifistic when it comes to humans."

"Drac mentioned them in one of his journals, I think he thought something like… the drugs and two souls suppressed the demons in each of them…kind of a variant on Angel. Think of it as a turning only half-way done, the demons likely have no minds left with which to fight anymore."

"So there's two more vampires with souls?"

"Not really Buff, more like two humans whose bodies have been vampirized: the souls never left, so the Snells are still with us, so to speak."

"So the demons are brain-dead from the drugs, so they never took control and butted the souls out? Weird."

"Indeed, but being hippies of that period, they have no real respect or trust for authority, or else the Council might have tried to hire them."

"So don't attack the gun-toting hippy vamps," Buffy considered., "Since they brought me here after dealing with the other vampires, I'm not going to complain."

**December 15th, 2000 **

**Castle Alexander, 5:30 PM**

Giles and Joyce stepped into the kitchen to find Xander in a fancy silk robe and bat slippers, reading the LA papers and sipping red wine.

"Hi guys, this is a surprise., I thought everyone was taking the night off," the young man greeted them., "What brings you by?"

"Um, Buffy had a rather long lunch with us today," Giles began, causing Xander to show a more serious façade, "and as you suggested to her, it was a rather long talk."

"How is she?" he replied, causing Joyce to smile slightly.

"She's fine, Xander," the woman told him warmly., "We just wanted to discuss some of the same things with you, so we can understand it from both angles."

"Well, I have a kettle of tea that should still be hot, feel free to heat it back up and make tea, or help me finish this wine; it's an excellent vintage," he told them with a sigh, "though I believe Buffy should be here, too."

"No, she knows we'd be talking to you, Xander," Giles said as he set the kettle on the stove and found the makings., "And she also told us that you've placed any future relationship solely in her hands. Is that right correct?"

"Pretty much., as As I told her, I know what I want., I made that clear up in the mountains, and told her that she has to understand what she wants before giving me an answer."

Joyce looked concerned., "And if she decides not to pursue a relationship?"

"Then after we end Glorificus, I'll be around only as much as Angelus the first few months after you moved to the Hell Mouth. I'll be available for emergencies, and Giles and I can exchange reference materials."

"I thought you told her you'd still be friends?" Joyce interrupted, only to have Xander take back the conversation.

"Friends that care, yes," he replied., "But I'm going to be busy mastering my magic, buying and learning to run a construction and property investment company, and help the women staying with me to rebuild lives of their own. That doesn't leave much time for me to go to the Bronze and watch Buffy try and get involved with someone who isn't me."

"And if she does want to date you?"

"Then I'll continue to make her my main priority, help her to enjoy life, embrace who and what she is, to and find a path that includes all of that."

"W-ho and what she is?" Giles remarked, curious as to the possible answer.

"She needs to be Buffy and the Vampire Slayer, revel in both, and never give up on life."

"So, have you told her this?" Joyce pursued.

"Not so directly, because then I'd come across as forcing the issue or making her what I want her to be."

"In a perfect world, how would you want things to be between you?"

"Hmm, the way they were the weekend we were a couple," he sighed deeply with a sad smile., "Almost every good dream came true then. Then the 'other' her showed up and it was over."

"That must have been…crushing," Joyce sympathized, placing a comforting hand on Xander's forearm.

"Yeah, so I've already experienced the loss, Joyce," Xander smiled sadly., "And then I spent a couple of weeks learning magic and researching."

Giles had been quietly observing and noting Xander, really paying attention to nuance, realizing layers had existed to the boy even before Dracula's trip to Sunnydale.,

"Xander, what happened to Anya?"

"Almost three months have gone by and only now someone asks?" Xander smiled sadly., "The other Alexander Harris told her to leave town and tossed money at her. She left without even trying to argue. At least with her leaving me, should she ever become a vengeance demon again, I won't be a target because she abandoned me."

"Did you love her?" Joyce asked., "I ask because only a couple of weeks later, you're with Buffy."

"I cared about her, and probably could have felt more in time, but I've only loved two women before, Cordelia, and before her, Buffy."

"So why do you think you and…Slayer Buffy hit it off so well?"

"No unnatural competition, and she saw me do better then either of them."

"Unnatural?"

"Not dead, and not a steroid-abusing chip-boosted soldier, though I was starting to like Riley when all of this happened to me. Once he'd had time to…become human again, I didn't have to put up with my friends looking down on me when they'd even bother to notice. And yes, it was that bad. Giles didn't get it as much, but come on…

"Giles, how long would you have stayed if Dracula hadn't beat Buffy into realizing she'd lost her edge?" he turned to face the Englishman.

"I-I would have been gone by the end of October, seeing as I wasn't really needed. I had the opportunity to resume duties as a curator at the Museum."

Joyce gasped slightly in shock., "But why?"

"Like Alexander, I-I wasn't feeling particularly welcome or needed, but I think we're getting off topic. I believe Xander was telling us about his revived feelings for Buffy."

"Not exactly, Giles," Xander said as he poured himself a second full glass of wine., "But close enough. Let's see…she saw me besting vampires better than her former and current beaus, she told me she was breaking up with Riley, we discussed my plans for the weekend, and she very strongly invited herself along. That whole trip up there, we talked like adults, and the whole weekend we talked, hunted, fought evil at long odds and became the closest we've ever been, sharing secrets, and discussing the last few years openly. So I fell for her again, and then…you know the rest. She's the one with split issues, so she needs to decide what the recombined Buffy wants. I'm even learning to dress better, current choice in slippers aside."

Joyce smiled., "I like your slippers, Xander, they show you're still you in spite of the changes. But I do have one important question, how do I know you won't hurt my daughter like you did Cordelia?"

"Fair question…and the answer has many parts to it," Xander considered, nodding thoughtfully.

"Willow and I had a brief attraction, I don't know, about a week or so before the Band Candy incident." He watched as the two slightly blushed in embarrassment.

"Fact is, as Giles said, it only makes you an immature teenager again, your inhibitions are down and you act the way one would expect you to. I think, if not for the Band Candy, the one kiss in that warehouse would not have necessarily happened and I'd probably be with Cordelia in Los Angeles now, helping Angel fight evil," he said thoughtfully.

"My home life was the opposite of the ideal, and I spent two Christmases in a sleeping bag in my backyard after learning about vampires. I was in a depression;, no matter what I did or how many times I did the right thing, I caught crap. I went home, and I got…you get the idea. So, the candy abuse was what really boosted the Willow-attraction on my side; plus I'd expected Cordelia to eventually wise up and toss me to the curb. Band Candy for me was a wonder drug;, I felt happy and loved., after After that night, I kept my parents on that stuff for almost two months before it ran out two days before Christmas. I only hit it a few times after Cordelia and the entire Library clique abandoned me as the sole bad guy.

"But, on a happy note, my depression cleared up and since then I haven't needed artificial boosts to stay normal."

The two adults were silent, not expecting such revelations, and especially not one that labeled the candy as an abused substance. Joyce responded first.

"I don't know how to respond to that…" the woman told him as Giles returned with a replenished tray of tea and such.

"You don't have to respond at all, Joyce, you simply received a fuller answer is all," Xander told her, retiring the empty wine bottle and nodding when Giles held up a cup for tea.

"So you're saying it was the candy?"

"No, what I'm saying is that it was more like I was feeling so much better than before the candy, - like having a couple of drinks, but not being tipsy or drunk. And after years of crap…you bet I was eating it, especially since no one had pointed out a down side that applied to me. And as far as that one big passionate good-bye kiss for Willow…when we expected to be dead in the next few minutes or at most an hour? Nothing more had happened. Yet. Now that I'm saying this out loud, I did nothing wrong. So forgive my language Joyce, but…screw everyone's opinion. I can't believe I let all of them walk all over me like that; it must have been the coming down off the candy…huh, cool.

"So where's that leave us? I don't know, Joyce, Giles. I do know that as important as it is to the two of you, and that you'll offer an opinion or advice to Buffy if pressed, and that's fine with me, but it still comes down to the fact it's Buffy's decision to make."


	12. Chapter 12

Shadow Prince (12?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**December 15th, 2000, 8 PM, Castle Alexander **

A group of men wearing plate armor faced the castle, five in all. They'd watched as the Slayer and one rumor had it was named Alexander Tepes dispatched a group of four demons egging on a dozen vampires in a park. They'd watched as the two headed up the drive. The knights never knew what hit 'em.

"Well, Buff, let's get them tied up and in the house," Alexander told his blonde female friend, "We still have the Watchers dropping by in an hour."

"Okay, but what who are these guys?"

"I don't know, but we'll leave out some of their gear and maybe some one will remark on the heraldry."

**December 15th, 2000, 8:30 PM**

Quinton Travers stood at the doors with six other Watchers standing behind him, two of them women. Bother Marcus allows them and escorts them to the parlor, surprised to see the full Los Angeles and Sunnydale extended groups. Giles steps forward to handle introductions.

"Quinton. You're early. Please do be seated."

"I think we'll catch up first and establish the parameters of our review."

Xander's laugh can be heard near them, and it echoes throughout the room as he appears next to Travers, "Ha! No chance of that on your terms, Mr. Travers. You will provide this information, then we will discuss reaffiliation with your organization."

"Who!"

"Alexander Lavelle Tepes," Xander smiled, "And I will be your host during the proceedings. I will ask questions and you will have your secretaries here find the answers. If it provides what we need for the elimination of Glorificus, then the next step is figuring out how to deal with each other. You have some possibly capable researchers here even if they're your political appointees. With us, we have Elizabeth Summers the Vampire Slayer, Faith Giles the Vampire Slayer, Darla Harris, my personal assistant as well as vampire specialist, 17th-20th centuries, Tara Maclay, Willow Rosenberg, Amelia and Catherine Madison, quite capable magic wielders, Tara herself is a Wicca. The Seer Cordelia Chase, Lead Researcher Wesley Wyndham-Price, Antiquities Specialist (non-Occult) Joyce Summers, Logistical and Training Coordinator Rupert Giles, Field Leader and Los Angeles Liaison Charles Gunn, Scientist Winifred Burkle, and you've already met our 'chaplain' Brother Marcus of the Order of Dagon. Empath Lorne and Vampire Liam Del Soul, are over at our public interface site, the Magic Box."

Xander continued to smile pleasantly, as he sat down and others followed his lead. He simply began filling in the Watchers on what they had on the hell goddess, with possible scenarios. Xander even let them learn of his fuller lineage as Romany, that he was legally Prince Tepes, that they were in the late Dracula's lodgings, and their theories for dealing with the threat of Glorificus.

"And how do we know you're capable?" Travers asked acerbically.

"Because of a certain item that will go into your possession once we've negotiated in good faith," Alexander smiled, "Downstairs in a foot-thick layer of bubble-wrap, in a carton of packing Styrofoam, is a Dagon Sphere. In it we've captured the First Evil."

Travers choked on his tea as several of the Watchers were briefly looking shocked rather than somber, "What!"

"Non-corporeal energy being, very old, lots of probably false rumors abound…"

"I know—You have it contained!"

"I ask that you hold down the volume please," Xander admonished with a slight smile, "that was a bit untoward."

"I, quite, sorry," Quinton corrected himself, "And how do we know it's a Dagon Sphere?"

Xander pointed at Marcus and cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, member of their Order, right," the unsettled authoritarian nodded, then turned toward his Watchers, "Any ideas yet?"

"We'd like to forward the queries to London," Nigel told him, "But we feel the various considerations are equally valid. Though the idea of vampires being unaffected by the memory spell regarding the Beast's host means the vampire is the simplest solution."

"What about splitting between host and hell goddess using the ferula-gemina."

"Now that's quite a fascinating idea," Philip enthused slightly, "And if you identified all of your relatives, and fired the thing at them one by one, you would eventually get the one that is hosting Glorificus. The memory spell would not be an issue."

Travers nodded, "But what would happen then? Would the energy release be explosive, or inconsequential."

"Well sir," Philip replied, "it might be like an Ascension, however much energy that actually drew, maybe more."

"L-like a large flash of light and heat?" Giles asked, "Or concussive force?"

"Hmm, I'd guess the former, but precautions should be taken."

"So if all of you were here and I go find Glorificus across town and split her?"

"We'd be safe…probably," Nigel considered, "But as for you, we couldn't say. How long do you think it will take to track down and check your relatives in California, Prince Tepes?"

"Charles?"

"Well, since you contacted us about this a couple of weeks back, we've been slowly going through the lists, especially when you turned over the compiled genealogies that Wolfram and Hart provided. Very few of the folks are in California from what we've been able to determine. Wesley?"

"Indeed, we've narrowed the most likely suspects to a dozen throughout the state, of whom four meet the proposed criteria of age."

Xander leaned forward a little, "Wes, how many are in Sunnydale?"

"All four, two of whom have moved here in the last year, and you are not in that number by the way."

Travers frowned slightly in thought, then nodded, "Ah, that's right, you and Glorificus were in the same place at the same time. So, what next? Send the vampire to spy on them and wait for something to happen?"

"Actually, yes, but with support, we need to kill off every possible one of those sycophantic demons and narrow down her support base. Charles? Any luck finding the hell portal in LA?"

"Seems to have been closed, but Wes thinks we could briefly reopen it if it's just dormant?"

Travers spoke up, "Would it be a good idea to open it? I think I see where this is leading, but what if it's a dimension that gives Glorificus greater ambient power. You might actually create a permanent tear if she were to explode during use of the ferula-gemina, or she might immediately have access to her full powers and be able to access our reality as well as the hell dimension."

Wesley nodded, "Indeed, but that's why it would be a last resort if we find there is significant worry of an explosive danger to the populous."

"So how can the Council actively assist?" Travers asked, "We have some resources to draw upon."

Alexander spoke up, "Two helicopters with a large steel net, and a ton of C-4 or similar explosives we can strap to either. Once we find out which one the host is, we'll make sure to fly out a hundred or so miles above the sea and blow the damn thing up. So maybe both, to pick up anyone in the first craft if we have to ditch it."

"Ruthlessly practical," Travers complimented, "I wouldn't have expected it from this group."

"So, the helicopters and such?"

"It might take a few weeks for the explosives to be gathered in that large a quantity. Might it be overkill?"

"This is a hell goddess…"

"An excellent point, so now that we're agreed to a general plan of action while further research is conducted, now what?"

"We have tea, and discuss the best methods for rejuvenating your organization and its training methods."

"Why would we need to do anything?"

"As one example, why don't you train your potentials in small team tactics? You have the teams and the resources. If you had a truly capable Slayer, then what would you have if she's at the center of a team, Mr. Travers? A truly amazing weapon, a blessed sword instead of small pointed stake, as an analogy. And the stupidity of the Cruciamentum could be changed to a successful Slayer being trained for one year as team leader, with field experience. Then the team with her at human levels, and under her orders, takes on a normal nest of vamps or such. Her performance could be evaluated and she could become team leader. You keep the tradition of a ceremony, but now it actually means something."

"And if she fails?" Travers asked, recognizing the benefits listed, "Then what?"

"Well, if the team, including the slayer doesn't do well enough, the year is repeated, and they try again the next year. But if she survives, then the current leader gets to semi-retire and head up the training of potentials in teams, his boss moves onto the Council."

"Ah, so the more effective and successful we make the Slayer, the more those directly responsible gain in position and responsibility," Travers considered, "But wouldn't a lack of success result in less enthusiasm for a current Slayer?"

"That's why you have annual retests. Chances are the already-trained gal will make it before a newly Called one. And the fact that she and her team have fought and survived to get to the test means their ready for it, and are doing their job."

"I don't see an active role for a Watcher, here?"

"Your Watchers will start having to get military training, those now of age at least getting the basic term in. The Watcher will be qualified to become a team leader, and assume that role until a Slayer passes her test. Then, one of the others in the unit, a Watcher, will basically serve as her second until the next Slayer is called. He obviously will be ready and worthy to be the team leader for a potential and her team."

"Elegant," Wesley remarked, "The Council as leadership guides and supports the Slayer with its longevity and resources, but the Watchers themselves will in the process serve and support the Slayer at her side."

Travers and Giles looked stunned for a moment, locked eyes, then with grudging smiles reached out and shook hands, Wesley placing his atop theirs, "Deal."

The Head of the Council looked at the two slayers, then Tepes, then the two ex-Watchers, "Wesley with Ms LeHane, Rupert with Ms Summers; you'll receive your back pay, and will be reimbursed for documented receipts you may submit to the Council. I will probably assign Philip to Wesley, and Nigel to Rupert, as additional support. You are close enough geographically, to where you can provide support to each other…"

"What about their support personnel?"

"The Council will never support a vampire, and since his staff are his, them either. However, we recognize you, Prince Tepes, as the leader and provider of the non-Council personnel to both Slayers. You will cover personnel costs, and except for the vampire, we will extend our receipt reimbursement policy through you, to include them."

"Line of duty medical?"

"You pay for excellent coverage, and you can submit reimbursement for the other expenses, including co-payments and other nonsense invented by demons."

"Hmm, and as a cash flow fund, you'll put into an account for Rupert and Wesley, combined, for contingencies, equal to ten percent of the inventory of the Magic Box."

"Anything else?"

"Hmm, yes, your new Watchers will extend basic Watcher training to all support staff, which will improve the success of the unit, and also allow you to extend a positive Watcher influence. Who knows? You might find recruits for the future."

"Fair enough, and if we need a Slayer at the other Hellmouth for some reason?"

"Since some consider Cleveland to be very close indeed to Hell, the hope is that such a deployment and any others will be on a mission basis rather than a relocation. Wolfram and Hart mentioned something to me about there being at least forty or fifty thousand demons in Southern California."

"That's ten percent of the estimated world demon population!" Nigel choked.

"And so you see why we'd still want both Slayers based out of the area, especially with all of the world-ending saves that have had to be made over the last four years?"

"Alright, granted, and you will all take our phone calls?"

"Acceptable, but you'll also cover the educational expenses of the Slayers so long as they maintain a B average or better?"

"It should at least be in something applicable to being a Slayer?" Travers considered, "Say, law enforcement?"

Buffy let out a small whine.

"Criminology, or criminal psychology, or something?" the Head Watcher looked almost hopefully at the elder Slayer, and received a nod.

"And I'll cover the expenses of the support staff similarly. Giles, Wes, anything else?"

"No," both replied, Giles continuing, "I think planning the end of a hell goddess and reforming the Council for the next several centuries is quite enough for one night."

Travers and the rest of the room actually chuckled, leading Travers to smile, "Any chance of celebrating with something a little harder than tea to toast with?"

"Vlad actually had a couple bottles of very rare and old Scotch; do you think it fitting we toast to the end of even more vampires with that?"

Travers and the Watchers shared an almost-Ripperish smile at the thought.


	13. Chapter 13

Shadow Prince (13?)   
Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**The Magic Box, December 20th, 2000**

Five days the Watchers stayed; they called into the main headquarters about research, discussed tactics and went into great detail over the Watcher's Diaries of the last ten years, and those Slayers of whom the Watchers considered the best and the worst longest-lived worse in the last few centuries.

They had begun quite readily, for the purposes of coming up with the best approach to the process, and to try to find common threads upon which to build anew. Once Travers no longer felt in no way threatened by political aspirations by Giles or Wyndham-Price, he proved quite sociable, as well as quite insightful once they began.

Wolfram & Hart, similar legal and social manifestations, the known line of Aurelius vampires and their tendencies, and significant enemies of Slayers whose demise or continuance were unknown were looked over for commonality to make sure there wasn't a developing alliance on the evil side of the spectrum. The second day in, while once it was known that some of the manuscripts had been transcribed to computer files, Alexander had asked the Magic Team if they could discuss a big general spell to create a search engine of included texts. He'd explained they could for tradition's sake make it a big tome no one could simply carry off, but when you declared search parameters and opened it, the search results would be inside, with bibliographic detail.

The look given him by Willow was almost lustful from the challenge given, but he insisted that they talk it through for at least a day as to what would go into it and other like volumes, then meet with Quentin's staff for their inclusions and suggestions. They would then compare it to anything extant known that have been used in the past by others.

Turning to Travers, Giles and Wyndham-Pryce he explained, "I'd like to know what I need to gather on a subject rather than wasting time trying to remember."

"Hmm, it could really help," Wesley agreed, "especially as we've been discussing commonalities; this would, in the future, include a few we might of have missed."

Travers nodded, then turned to the young man that had, by simply voicing thoughts, managed to stir things up significantly, "Alexander, you mentioned there was something else about Slayers and Watchers you thought might be promising to research?"

"Yes, Quentin," he nodded agreeably as they sipped a coffee the Head Watcher favored on occasion, and waved Buffy and Faith over., "Do remember I told you of the demon hunting of a motorcycle gang with the Slayer Buffy? She and I discussed many things, one of which was not just Slayer Dreams, but past-life dreams of her and Merrick both, wherein they were many times over the centuries paired as Slayer and Watcher, with Lothos bothering them frequently. Since Buffy is an extremely strong-willed young woman that ended both Lothos and Nest, she's likely to be able to remaining retain control and still remain herself with something I'd like considered, but which would never be implemented without her permission consent."

Nods all came from all around, with Buffy placing a hand over Xander's and looking at him with a concerned questioningly look expression on her face.

"If we were to undertake a memory recall spell on her, since she had the Buffy dreams already with the usual Slayer dreams, is it possible that she would she be able to recall those memories as well?" Xander asked, and as he looked into Buffy's eyes., "We'd research her past Slayer selves as much as possible and if she believes the benefits to her, personally as well as to the Slayer, far outweigh the rather gruesome fates of, well, her earlier selves, she would become an ideal candidate upon getting her college degree finished, for an eventual position on the Council."

"Hmm, that suggestions certainly has a lot of merit in it," Travers agreed, looking thoughtful, "but we'd definitely want the benefits to outweigh the downside. That type of overload might cause all sorts of mental and emotional trauma…though since we're discussing her past-lives, - sorry, Miss Summers, to discuss you in the third person, though I'm mostly talking to Alexander…we certainly don't want to lose the experienced person we have now."

"Indeed," Wesley added, nodding to both Slayers., "And should we be able to determine Merrick's new self, we could guide him appropriately, then offer a similar recall later on. We can maintain at least a minimal minimum of centuries' old experience even if we lost the Council archives."

"Hey, um," Faith began, her adjustment not giving her too great a comfort level, "Since since B, Red, G-Man and, uh, Alexander, did that Unity spell, could the others get the memories too? I know X, here, seems to have picked up a lot from it?"

"What!" the The group, except Xander, double-taked, Giles continuing, while looking to the young man, "I-I knew from discussions that you'd seemed to receive a bit of something…"

As Giles seemed uncertain as to how to proceed, Wesley stepped up and looked at Faith., "Faith, how do you know?"

Alexander nodded with a look of curiosity as well, but didn't deny her statement or prevent her from further discourse.

"Well, I can feel him and the others big-time with my Slayer senses., can't Can't you, Buffy?"

"Yeah, I have, but I thought it was the whole Prince thing? What's it feel like to you?"

"Well, can you feel Red across the room?"

"Yeah, about as strong as Angel or you?"

"Can you feel the Watchers?"

"I sense they're humans, but not really?"

"Hmm, I guess you're a little bit better on the fighting, and I'm a bit better on the senses, B, 'cause, after these last few days, I can after these last few days almost tell which normal human is which when they enter and I'm not looking, and I can tell the Glindas apart, from their power and emotions."

"This is quite fascinating, Miss Giles," Quentin considered, looking intrigued and leaning forward to hand her a cup of coffee, as her voice seemed dry,. "If everything is as you describe, you might have some of the strongest Slayer sensing ability we've come across in at least the last three centuries. So please continue, uh, Faith."

"Well, Xander now feels like Angel times three, Red, Giles, B and something as strong as Angel but not a demon…all combined. When he lets his stealth-guy shield down, it's like someone turned a spotlight on him."

The small group turned to the smiling Prince Tepes, who set his coffee down, and leaned back, head cocked to the side in thought.

"I thought we had already covered this at some point?" he said, looking at Giles and Buffy., "Didn't we? Or was it just parts as things became obvious?"

"TH-that might be the case., ohOh, yes, it was on Tara's birthday, though we've mainly concentrated our discussions on your magics," Giles recollected., "But would you mind if we reiterated everything we've discussed?"

"I suppose not, but since everyone's actually here at the moment, including Joyce and Dawn, who're just coming in … now," he smiled, since he was facing away from the door. The group stared at him, amazed, but then he pointed to a store security mirror, which lightened the mood.

"Well, mostly just an outline, then, so you know a bit more of how I've evolved over the last three months, combined with research Marcus and I have been undertaking."

"First off, from what we've been able to test and determine, while not a vampire, I have the equivalent abilities of Lothos, Dracula and the Master as far as the non-physical stuff goes, and can definitely do the vampire flying thing. Dracula, apparently, didn't just come to see Buffy, but he had discovered an ancient text of, for want of a better phrase, working out physically and charging up the body with filtered Hell Mouth energy. He'd hoped to become the most powerful mage in the world, and have himself as a huge initial battery on which to draw."

"Excuse me, Alexander," Wesley interrupted at a pause., "Filtered?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, he planned on drawing the Hell energies through, oddly enough, sacred ground and objects so that nothing nastier than himself could slip in and take over, and would have brought in some form of Earth mage or such to make it all more natural."

"All this for power, X?"

"That, and he'd planned to restore life to his body, but with his demonic self in place of a soul, so that he could spawn a family off his brides."

Giles considered this information, then looked at Xander., "And now, that only six or so weeks later, Faith's description compares far more powerfully than the one on your birthday…"

"My 'vladness' Vlad-ness' allowed me to do the same as far as powering up, and blending bending the conflicting forces within into a single me. That's probably why I feel like so many things together, and not a bunch of things joined together. Does that seem a closer explanation, Faith?"

"Yeah, it does…"

Willow frowned slightly and got a hurt look., "But you're the one who warned me about the magic use…"

"And I haven't used it for anything except to make sure I'm a single Xander, Willow, without residuals that could threaten family…or pack," he immediately reassured her. "And trust me, if I go beyond the innate abilities—and I still can't believe I've allowed my language to improve so much to where I use the word innate—I'm actually going to need the help of you and the rest of the magic team. The same rules apply. And the money spent to ensure the taint was removed from energy cost me several hundred thousands of dollars."

"Just how powerful are you, Alexander?" Quentin asked

"If I learn to redirect my power the right way, I can be as fast and strong as Glorificus for all of five seconds, based on what I saw when she attacked Buffy. Though I could hold out against the hitting physical attack for another ten seconds, I estimate. Otherwise? I could probably last against Buffy or Faith on equal terms for three minutes, then I wouldn't be able to maintain protection against damage. I also have skills they don't have yet, so for the first minute or so, it would be difficult to say who would win if we we're were actually trying to kill each other. And keep in mind, that's redirecting all my magic into the body rather than using the magic for spells or shocking."

"Shocking?"

"Magic's energy, Quentin, so one can learn to just let it out in a specific point, like being a taser for an instant. And as to magical power? Vlad planned to turn Buffy and Willow into Brides, and he thought from a spell cat, cast that Willow might, in potential personal power, be one of the five most powerful magic-wielders of the last century. And without her having learned discipline yet, be quite easily controllable."

"And you're more powerful?"

"I have raw power, but no training, and until the Glorificus situation is taken care of, have no plans to explore that side. What we've discussed these last few days…that's where my interests lie. I'm content to support and help guide the reforms; I don't feel a need to feel self-important. Though I do intend to study the theoretical knowledge associated with the undead, and the living, so I can perhaps find a way to briefly interrupt the blood magic the binds the demons to the bodies. Perhaps with a strong enough coven, we could wipe out large concentrations of the nasties, and the Slayer teams could divert to the equally-dangerous but far fewer other types of demons."

Angel looked concerned., "Necromancy? Voodoo? Are you sure you want to deal with that? Wolfram and Hart deal with that type of power."

"Theoretical, Liam;, though there were a few people cut down far too soon that I'd be tempted to have things set right for them. Though I'm considering once I've pondered the consequences, of having the lawyers bring them back intact and untainted, to perhaps identify the source and wielder of their strongest magics. Then we can eliminate their strongest players."

Quentin shrewdly looked at the young man, appreciating the fact that they'd managed to ally and find common ground. The thinking that that mind produced, based in American popular culture, Ripper Giles and vampires, was eliminating the dross and leaving possibilities behind. What was it the young man had said the other day? If the characters in all of Shakespeare's works had just tried to communicate, instead of wander and brood and whine, each story would be a single-scene skit. Travers himself decided then and there that to ensure the legacy of these reforms, and his place in them, he'd gladly give up the flowery language of Watcher tradition if what he got was the routing of the Council's enemies and their eventual elimination.

"Xander?" Buffy asked, a bit hesitantly, as the rest of the group departed for lodgings, taking reaching out her hand and catching his. The others who noticed smiled, even Liam, though his held a hint of melancholy, as they left the two alone. Giles turned to the two.

"Just lock up when you leave."

Buffy sat on the corner of the big 'Scooby Research Table' as she played with his hand, Xander leaning back and to the side of his chair, looking up into her eyes, waiting.

"Xander? I've thought about it a lot, and," she exhaled nervously, "I want to try…us."

Outside the store, and even across the street, the just-departing group was nearly overwhelmed by a surge of happiness and love, and the girl next to the epicenter of emotion, knew without any doubt exactly how the boy felt about her.


	14. Chapter 14

_Shadow Prince (14?)_   
_Author: Tohonomike __Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine._

**The Offices of Wolfram and Hart, December 22nd, 2000**

"Prince Tepes, good to see you again, sir," Lindsey MacDonald enthused as the client entered the room., "I'd like you to meet my boss, Holland Manners."

"Prince Tepes, it's an honor to meet with you," Manners greeted him as he felt the sheer power radiating from the man, shaking an offered hand, and gesturing to a seat., "Is there anything we can get you? Coffee, perhaps?"

"No, but thank you for the offer," the man smiled slightly, then allowed a slight smirk., "I'm here to complete my Christmas shopping, as it were. As I would hope you have the competency of knowing, I've been establishing my influence over the Watchers Council and their champions; one is my ward and the other, for want of a better term, my paramour. And their support groups are under my direct influence, if not outright control."

"Yes, sir, we did notice that., and And that the area of the Hellmouth has been remarkably free of vampires, if not other demons, as of late."

"And that would be from the minimal interference in your own affairs from the Vampire and his helpers redirecting themselves into a rather formidable force to clean up his dusty brethren," Alexander pointed out, then got to the point., "But there are two that are not quite as obligated to me as they could be, and thus, I'm hoping that a quintet of Christmas presents might overcome the last resistance. Your previous attempt to ensnare Angel has inspired me to try a similar tact.,

"I'd like to hire your services in the full and healthy healing of three humans that, in death, hold greatly the hearts I need to win to complete my coup. One was a vampire, a new one, named Jesse McNally, who was as a brother to my main Witch;, the next was the intended of the Watcher, her name being Jenny Calendar. And the third, my paramour's former Watcher., but But only bring him back if his soul has not been reincarnated. The fourth 'gift' is the sister of that street thug that's doing quite well with Angelus; I want his sister back, so that if the time comes when the vampire might resist, his alternative will be that I'll have isolated the brooding soul from his support. And the fifth one I want back is his old seer. He'll have two more vulnerabilities, and he'll owe me."

Holland Manners looked a bit concerned., "Um, normally, such raisings are quite expensive and cannot always be guaranteed…"

"How much, Mr. Manners? Money is nothing unless it is used in one way or another as the power it is. In this situation, I'm willing to pay a fair premium for this service, especially if it can be completed within the next two days. Further, I'm almost done establishing portals to two parallel realms; I'd appreciate a heads up in the event your Senior Partners decide to, shall we say, end the world or take it over. That way, I can relocate without too much fuss."

The older man considered for a moment, and decided that perhaps the necromancer might be able to lend a hand in this one, and perhaps in the future, recruit the young Prince into joining the Black Thorn. Indeed, if he could split the Council, that alone might be sufficient to bring him to the attention of the Senior Partners., "I need to make a phone call to find out if the necessary personnel are in this city, world and plane."

"Take your time, and, if possible, I would like the last ten minutes of Calendar's life to be removed. I don't want the trauma to interfere with my plans."

"I'll pass that on, sir. I'll be back as soon as I can. Lindsey, please see to the needs of our guest."

With Lindsey eager to please their guest, Xander learned something of the workings and machinations within Lindsey's level of the firm, and encouraged the lawyer to consider him a source of possible patronage in the future. Feeding the man's ego by continuously referring to Lilah as his assistant, he wormed his way deeper, something he wouldn't have been able to do before he became Tepes. He also managed to hand over his shopping list and Lindsey had immediately assigned staff to having it delivered as specified.

The final property documents, titles, and inventories had come through, and it had served as the basis of business in Manners' absence. And both Both the attorney and Young young Tepes were fascinated to learn that Vlad had actually maintained all rights to his story, variants, legacy, and had acquired those of the Van Helsing family,. As as well as their historical property, as trophy assets. MacDonald had handed him a large suitcase to take with him, which contained the hardcopies and CD-media on which his total legacy was catalogued.

After about forty minutes, Manners returned with a smile on his face., "Prince Tepes, I believe that while our contractors will charge a premium, we can meet a deadline such as you specialized specified, but the two restored humans will be a bit tired and confused for a day or so, afterwards."

"Excellent., and And the memory removal?"

"A simple spell after the fact."

"Again, I'm impressed," Xander admitted., "And not to make it more difficult, but could you age the boy four years so he'll match his records as a runaway and give those years to the old Watcher?"

"Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. and And we've already begun the process of changing the many legal documents and support paper work on all three as well."

"Do you require payment in advance? Or upon completion of services?"

"Well, we'll leave that in your hands, sir."

"Let's get this out of the way, if we can," he said, reaching into his suit coat for the checkbook., "How much, and do I make it out to your firm?"

"To the firm, yes? And it comes out to thirteen million dollars even."

Alexander nodded;, the large amount of money he was spending hadn't been accrued by him, and it was a small price to pay to reunite the family once again.

Xander walked out of the building with an amused look on his face, greeting Buffy with an enthusiastic exchange of kissing. He got into the limousine and let himself slump in the seat and exhale loudly.

"I'm not sure I can ever do that again, guys," he told Buffy, Willow, Giles, Angel, and Lorne, "even if I do get to embarrass myself singing old disco songs to get a heads up."

Angel snickered, "You really could have picked your own song…"

"What! Lorne…"

"Hey Sugar Buns, at least it wasn't the Broodiest Maximus singing 'Mandy,.'" The the green demon replied with a big smile and an exaggerated eye roll., "And besides, I pick up the best immediate information if you sing what I like in a way least likely to cause me pain."

Angel looked hurt, "But…"

"Sorry, Champion of Light, but if I let you do to Donna Summers what you did to Manilow, I'd have to forever close up shop and listen to 'Machine Metal Music' in a monastery."

While Angel looked openly hurt for a moment before shaking his head and nodding agreement, the others smiled or laughed at Lorne's successful move to lighten matters.

Giles turned to the young castle owner., "So, are you now going to let us in on what business you took care of with the attorneys?"

"No, I think I'll wait and see if they deliver, first, but at least I had them take care of my Christmas shopping for me."

"Please tell me we didn't go to all this trouble for your shopping?"

"Come on, Giles, of course that wasn't the only reason…I'll have you know I own a large home in Amsterdam that now serves as an inn, and another next door that used to be a doctor's office but is now a tourist attraction, also, in addition to being part of the inn. Oh, and apparently a small library put in storage so a good many years ago, will be delivered to the castle soon."

"Really? Why would Dracula have property in The Netherlands?"

"Well, they did belong to Dr. Van Helsing, so I suppose that was reason enough?"

"Good Lord, Xander, is this bounty to end soon?"

"I have the documentation and such in the bag I had them put in the trunk, so I think I'm about done."

Angel watched as Buffy comfortably leaned against Xander as the young man spoke, and sighed as he thought about all the what ifs of their relationship. No matter how much he hated it, at least she'd have someone powerful to watch after her, as well as come closest to giving her a normal life.

The long day in Los Angeles had resulted in a general sweep of three seedier vampire bars just to let the local evil populace know Angel and his group were still around, and to allow that part of the group to make a wish list for the Hyperion. Angel had finally sucked it up and, to provide a better standard of living for his group, had asked outright for financing the remodeling of the historic hotel to its former glory, only a basement level section of rooms for storage and training being exclusive to the demon fighters.

Xander had made a call, and ninety minutes later, a team of estimators and an architect came in and spent nearly three hours to develop a preliminary picture, during which Xander explained how he'd used money in Vlad's questionable accounts to buy the general and subcontractors through whom he'd worked in Sunnydale, and a small general contractor in the heart of LA that seemed to specialize in the less-human areas.

"So I know you own the company, but didn't they get here a little fast?"

"The company office is four doors down and across the street, the gated staircase entry between the deli and the men's shelter."

"I don't remember the space being occupied before.?"

"Well, when I bought up a couple small subcontractors and a group of do-gooder architect and engineer types that really don't know business, we consolidated the brains down here, and moved the worker bees in with the general contractor and closer to where you all said Gunn's gang is."

Cordelia nodded enthusiastically, and handed Xander a bunch of legal pad sheets.,

"Wow, that's amazing, Xander," she smiled, then launched into an explanation of the sheets she'd given him. "Okay, now I know it takes up three of the rooms, and has one of the only good views of the courtyard, but there's my basic design for my place, and on the fourth one page is the furnishings I want for it. You'll notice that the two back-to-back bathrooms become a bigger one, and the small one is the center for the kitchen. Even I understand a little about that infrastructure stuff.

"Oh, and with all this these businesses, how're you going to run them all?"

"I'm not, Cor," he smiled as he looked at the drawings and realized she'd done far better than most people, and had included measurements of all the rooms involved, too. "I bought them all, consolidated them all into two management teams and kept the previous guys on as managers. The 'extra' managers are out there as estimators, planners and salesmen."

"Yeah, but two cities…"

"There were three partners in Sunnydale., one One, who liked the business side and felt antsy while his family wanted to stay in one place: he's the new CEO of Dragonson Development. The second guy liked the construction side and didn't really wanted to uproot his family and move; he's heading up the company based in SunnyD. And the third guy was the same, but his family wanted to move back to LA; so he's now construction veep vice president here."

Wesley smiled, "So, you basically made it possible for them to do what they had or wanted to do, but not have to break up their money source; that's quite good. So how much does that leave you, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Um, about twenty million in liquidity after making sure there was enough money for all the stuff I wanted to do…"

"Bloody Hell…"

"Language, Wes…"

"Oh dear, I'm sorry ladies., I'm just…a bit shocked."

Buffy stared at her new boyfriend in shock., "You have that kind of money and still won't buy me a car?" she pouted. And quite adorably so, he thought.

Those who knew Buffy's driving capabilities either chuckled, whined, or whimpered, depending on the degree of previous exposure, leading the blonde to look around at them and half-snarl, "Traitors."

"Buff, you already know how much we love you—" he held up his hand to ward off Cordelia, "and the next person to say otherwise will be heavily insured and then forced to give you driving lessons for a solid week," (Cordelia paled and clenched the hands of Gunn and Wes in her own for comfort at that threat) "but you're your destiny is to slay evil vampires, not innocent Volvos."

"But—"

"Now, I'm not unwilling to have you chauffered chauffeured around, especially if it means you can focus on doing less damage to my money by concentrating on the sales at the department stores."

"Oh!" Cordelia interjected with a very big smile, "And I'm willing, for a reasonable fee, to go with her, just to make sure it works out according your plan, O Great Prince. After all, I have to make sure Dawnie as a brunette gets the proper training."

"I knew I could count on you, Cor," Xander smiled, making it clear he both agreed and knew she'd been halfway joking, halfway wistful., "So I figure I'll spring for a gal-pal weekend every other month, but only if you all actually wear the things at least a half-dozen times."

"What?" Buffy and Cordelia grimaced together, indignantly. "That's not right!"

"There's you two, Dawn, Joyce, Amy, Willow, Tara, Catherine, Faith and Darla. You Some of you guys may be different sizes, but since you can mix and match all you want, but I'd like to not waste the money. See, with that many of you, if you wore something twice before passing it, you're good to go. And don't start me on shoes or purses—"

"Handbags," the two shoppers corrected automatically.

"I don't care if you guys connect the closets at the castle and put in a big dry cleaning rotator, there will be NO retail shoes if you can't keep the total each to under a dozen pairs. You want more than that, shop wholesale, Payless Shoes or clearance."

Buffy pouted, "Xander, that's not fair…"

"Now, Buff, your shoe budget over the last couple of years has been way down; are you telling me if I doubled it, you wouldn't feel rich beyond the dreams of avarice?"

"Well…"

"And don't you, Faith, Darla and Willow actually have the same size feet?"

"Yeah…"

"Doesn't that mean that by sharing, it's like having four times the shoes?"

"O-o-okay. When you put it that way…"


	15. Chapter 15

_Shadow Prince (15?)_   
_Author: Tohonomike __Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine._

**The Hyperion Hotel, December 24th, 2000, 5PM**

The Scooby Gang had visited and celebrated Christmas at the Hyperion the night before, but after a telephone call from his attorneys, Xander had had them fetch him by helicopter and arrange a car. The previous night had been a repeat performance of the past several nights; finding out where a couple of nests were in Gunn's old neighborhood, they'd fought as a small army to overwhelm and dust a total of forty vampires and four fyarls without serious injury.

While in In the air, Xander had phoned ahead to arrange for the Gunn Gang to show up for dinner and a good pleasant surprise at the Hyperion. Then he ordered whatever the deli had left over for a five o'clock pick up. Then Next, he called to have Wes and Cordelia use the emergency credit card he'd given them to head over to the market and buy up any available roast chicken and bags of fruit and nuts.

The Hyperion was rather crowded and a bit tense; the Gunn's gang still didn't like having anything to do with a vampire, even one that fought evil. The decorations and tree were impressive, and David Nasbitt was on hand so he'd have a real place to enjoy a real holiday where almost nobody knew him. Xander had had him get a head count from Gunn, and practical presents were rounded up.

Xander's entrance, with the deli people and recently-in-the-know-Dragonson staff bringing in the food, caused quite a stir until he realized his mistake and dropped the glamour to show him in sweats, as Gunn came up and shook hands.

"Sorry guys about that, guys, I keep forgetting about that spell. Keeps the evil lawyer types happy," Xander smiled as he remained up on the steps so everybody could see him., "Now, I know quite a few of you are a bit wary of the Brooding Wonder over there, but just this once, I hope you'll let yourselves accept our best. I know what most of you have been through, and I think it's crap. I've fought the dust bunnies for only four years, and since I now have money to help the others fighting them, I've been talking to Gunn about helping you out. What do I want in return? Two things: you send your little ones to school and make sure they get educations, and you go apply for jobs at Dragonson; we'll get you set up on day jobs, and we're probably the only real employer who will understand if your excuse for being late or hospitalized is because you were preventing the Apocalypse. Now, those are the conditions; we'll get to better equipping you for your 'night jobs' when you're more comfortable with us.

"As to why I'm doing this: I'm up at the Hellmouth with the Slayers; if we ever get our butts kicked back to LA, I'd like there to be some folks around ready to save the world."

From the back of Gunn's 'Lost Boys,' "How can we trust you?"

"Fair question, and before I show you, let me tell you that I probably can't repeat what I've had to do for this to happen, okay? This is a one-time only achievement. Now, we're going to have the traditional Santa stuff for the young ones, and there'll be fruit and other food, and you're expected to take the leftovers home, got it? Okay, I'd like for Charles to stand here, and the rest of you behind him; the Fang Gangers on the other side, up close please. Think happy thoughts."

He watched as they suspiciously took up positions while he went outside. The now well-dressed man and the deservedly well-dressed young woman followed him in until he guided them to the top of the stairs. The Fangers and the bangers were speechless until Alonna and Doyle found themselves enthusiastically hugged and welcomed back. As the various friends hugged, kissed and cried, Xander handed to Lorne the diet and health instructions for both of the 'returnees' for the next week or two.

The Fangers turned to Xander as he shook hands with Lorne and Wesley, his fellow 'secret santasSantas.'

"Well, Angel, I gotta go…from the three of us," he gestured at the others, who'd confirmed the viability of the plan and helped assure a proper approach was taken with the lawyers, "Merry Christmas."

As more hugs were exchanged, including a surprise one from a very happy Angel, Xander couldn't help but joke, "I'm just glad you don't photograph well or people would have evidence that we could get along."

Gunn and a tired Alonna hugged the three tightly, the eyes of Gunn and most of the 'Lost Boys' tearing in spite of their tough guy images.

This would, undoubtedly, be the best Christmas any of them could ever hope for.

**The Castle, December 24th, 2000, 6:30PM**

The minor chaos engulfing his home brought a smile to Xander's face as he watched his girlfriend chase her sister around toward the kitchen.

"Dawn! I'll…" was all he heard before the half-laughing, half-glaring blonde slayer ran out of sight and hearing, as Xander dropping dropped the glamour once more to reveal comfortable sweats he favored. He moved into the great hall and smiled at the well and heavily decorated chamber, into which the holiday festivities would mostly happen, And and the giant trees which Giles had taken charge of and, with Xander's credit cards, properly decorated in the manner of the British man's traditions, with the help of the girls, of course. The grand table was set up from both ends, the intent being that most of the prep for dinner tonight and an equally large brunch tomorrow would have much of the work done and not require the usual rush to clean and reset dishes.

He could smell the food cooking in the kitchen; Joyce had taken control and with Catherine and Darla's assistance, managed to attempt an actual feast in scale, with a very large number of dishes they'd only read about, or in Darla's case, knew about, and hoped that it would all be eaten. Xander had let everybody know to include their favorite dish, especially if it reminded them of people past or happy holidays.

Looking around, he made sure that most of the folks who'd know his extra guests were no where to be seen, and so, when Giles came up from the cellar with several bottles of wine, and a few harder offerings, Xander smiled and asked the Watcher to run back down again for something a little special.

"Giles, toward the back and right of the cellar, you'll find a couple racks with some Danubian vintages; since the family one of our fellow travelers hailed from there…I have special reasons to ask you to grab a couple."

Giles caught the Kalderash meaning, and smiled, a bit bittersweet., "Thank you, Alexander, I'll be right back. It should only take five or ten minutes."

The young man raced to the door, waved the newly restored humans, each dressed in Santa attire, into the entry, and handed the Wolfram and Hart staff five hundred dollars each for hauling the luggage into the place and generally helping on Christmas Eve.

"Okay, guys, the coast is clear, let's make a break for the throne area; I hope this all works…"

Reaching the target, he bid them sit in the parlor/living room area he'd moved near the throne, which itself usually sat up where the presents and twin trees were now. He rang a bell that he'd let everybody know meant an announcement was to be made, and since there was still twenty or so minutes before dinner was to be ready, he hoped everybody would make their way for just a couple minutes.

The three fake-bearded St. Nicks were positioned in such a way that they wouldn't be readily noticed as to their real identities, and they waited as the others scurried out, Joyce and Catherine looking concerned as they were the cooks.

"What is it, Xander?" Joyce asked with pot holders on, and as Rupert set the extra wine on the table., "Catherine and I only have a minute before we need to get back into the kitchen."

"I'll be brief, Joyce," he smiled, then looked became much more serious as his eyes met those of the others., "It is sometimes traditional at the onset of important dinners to toast absent friends and family, but my errand to the attorneys the other day just didn't yield me more paperwork, though it also had that effect. Rupert, Wills, Buff, please sit down, and no fainting. This is all of the good right now, and very humanly real, okay?"

"Okay," the three warily agreed as they sat.

"Some of us have fallen, but some of us, at some effort, have come back to us. This is, as far as I know, a one-time only thing, okay?" More nods, from everybody., "So, there are some things that while making us stronger in the fight, darkened us as a group, hurt us more than we can admit aloud. Willow and I lost a brother," her (Willow's brain only slowly began to catch on), "Rupert, his heart, and Buffy, her first mentor." They frowned and then their eyes started to light up with hopeful suspicion…

Xander gestured to the three red and white figures to reveal themselves, as he announced, "So, Merry Christmas. Everyone, please welcome Jesse McNally, Jenny Kalderash, and Merrick Jameson-Smythe to the family again."

Willow teetered, but launched herself at Jesse and babbled so fast that it wasn't understandable to any being currently extant; Rupert unsteadily rose to his feet and tenderly took his lost love into a gentle but encompassing embrace, as though afraid she might break; Buffy lit up, grabbed her mother's hand and dragged her over to introduce her first Watcher, who had died to make sure she'd be safe. She With tears running own her cheeks she hugged the man, who softly spoke to her comfortingly.

"I hear my godson Rupert's taken good care of you," the man smiled as he patted her on the back, then reached over to shake Joyce's hand., "Madam, I'm very pleased to finally make your acquaintance."

"Joyce, please," she replied., the The Watcher research of she'd been involved in the last couple of weeks meant she knew how he'd sacrificed himself for her daughter, but not of his relationship with Giles., "So, Rupert's your godson?"

"Indeed," he smiled as Buffy, with a happy waterfall of tears, let him go., "I went to school with his parents, and after he'd renounced his faith, as well as the Council, in his Ripper years—"

"Good Lord, Uncle Merrick, not that story again!"

"—after he and his chums went too far to the Dark Side, I took it upon myself to re-baptize the miscreant…in the Thames…in January. He may not have embraced the Church again, but let me tell you, from the way he was praying after the third or fourth time I held him under, he made his peace with heaven Heaven. He's turned out quite well, if a little stiff, ever since."

As the group laughed at Rupert's embarrassment good-naturedly, Buffy smiled, scenting blood., "Dark Side?"

"What? You haven't seen Star Wars? I was the swordsmanship advisor for the movies. Unless someone found the secret cache I hid away, I have all the posters, a few light sabers, action figures and such."

Buffy turned to Giles,. "The guy who beat you up was a sci-fi geek, Giles?"

Giles desperately sought to conduct damage control., "Enthusiast, Buffy;, the Watchers do not employ geeks. You're mistaking us for Monty Python."

Xander smiled as the group began to coalesce as family, not as shock victims, as Tara informed Joyce that Catherine needed her in the kitchen.

"Oh! Dinner's almost ready, Mr. Jameson-Smythe. Consider yourself part of the family, and I do hope you'll tell us more family secrets over the meal."

"Dear Lady, it will be my pleasure and Rupert's everlasting shame…and please, call me Merrick., when When you say Jameson-Smythe, I still look for my father and I wasn't particularly fond of him," the old man smiled, causing Giles to groan and almost whine until Jenny, still held tight in his arms in front of him, nuzzled and the magic shop owner forgot everything until called to feast.


	16. Chapter 16

_Shadow Prince (16?)_ _Author: Tohonomike __Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine._

**January 2nd, 2001**

Wolfram and Hart were unaware that their machinations had come to naught and that any hope for the darkening and possible conversion of Angel into an ally had vanished under the guise of a Dark Prince's control. The welcomed return of Doyle and Alonna had quickly allowed a true bridge to form between Gunn's 'Lost Boys' and Angel Investigations.

The influx of regular food, clean water, jobs and the return to school by the youngest brought hope to the all-human group. They watched as Nasbitt and Tepes made good on promises, even to the extent of going to the school and school board to ensure proper testing and placement of the children involved as well as to donate sufficient resources to ensure the schools in question were able to fulfill their educational obligations.

Glorificus had laid continued to lay low for the time being, but rumors persisted of a gathering, remnants of past enemy groups coming together, but nothing concrete came into view. The Scooby Gang trained, and, as much as possible, went about their lives.

The young man with older eyes far older than his age thought back over the last hundred days, amazed and contented. Then, he'd been visited by a strange traveler through the dimensions, an alternate self of Great Power and had had activated upon him a spell which singularly recalled, reinforced and made permanent the magics that had affected Xander directly. The Earth and Animal magic of the Primal Hyena, the training and memories of the Soldier from Halloween, the Unity used against the Initiative cyborg, and the link to Dracula himself; all these were strengthtened. This did not account for the effect of the mage's dimensional magic, which caused metaphysical links of Unity-Willow to her vamp self, or because of her Unity link with Xander and the to Daracula Dracula, the formation of an additional tendril to Vamp Xander. Thus he held and could wield magic at the same levels as Willow, but with the Dark Prince's innate abilities, he'd concentrated on that first and not the regular spells others might know. And the Slayer Essence of changed demonic origin in the midst of this strange transition, effecting effected direct improvements of its own before blending with the whole.

Thus an Alexander Tepes evolved in an instant, that who was of great Power, but of focused capability, with the knowledge and mental training of Watcher Rupert Giles in a magically-teleportable castle that which was similarly charged and effected. A Place of great Potential and strong Wards of a Unity Magic not yet truly understood, though Alexander practiced it within the flair and melodrama of the Dark Prince.

Thus of Earth and Life, Chaos, Demonic, Shamanistic and Divine magic, nearly situated almost directly atop the Hellmouth, on ley lines crossing Sunnydale in a great Pentagram of fault lines…did the Shadow Prince feel the tendrils of Darkness within a Touch of Light; the familiarity was striking. Willow sat across from him at this moment, and yet it seemed as though two different Willows were brushing against his psyche. Evil was laughing at Light. He'd not felt something quite like it since the other Alexander, that strange traveler, had helped him become what he was today. The fear felt by the Light Willow, and the contempt of the Dark, made it clear his help was desperately needed. He turned to the few of his family that who were with him now, and asked them to leave after explaining what he felt compelled to do.

"I'm sorry, but I might not survive this," he told them abruptly after returning from one of the vaults. He set down the globe containing the essence of the First that the Watchers somehow had forgotten, adding it to the Gemina Ferula and a golden statuette of Janus, "But Darkness is hurting Us in another dimension…I know this not so much in words, but it was Willow calling."

Buffy understood the non-verbal bond the two still had after all they'd been through, and nodded, unsure of what was to come, but not liking the survival reference., "Please explain, Xan."

"If this Evil can move into their dimension, and I'm…close enough…to hear her calling, then it might keep coming. I hope I have enough power to double duplicate myself and the castle, sending one of me to their assistance while leaving the other here."

Buffy looked at him, "But—"

"No, Buff, I need you to keep everyone off the property, and remember, I'm planning to be here, too. And the Power I'm starting to feel from the other side…is incredible."

His beautiful gal, filled out by actually eating the last month they'd been going out, put on a brave front and shooed the others out as he prepared.

'This could leave me exhausted, but hopefully, the Wards on the castle will hold,' he thought., but with But when he again considered the Power levels he had sensed when getting the Plea, he feared the reverse, of being overwhelmed. He set the statue of Janus, thinking it ironic that a former nemesis was being called on, in as patron of a different aspect, the Keeper of Doors and Portals. He carefully mixed the components of the 'ad hoc' Request; the intervention of Janus would be the True Medium in this.

Carefully, he invoked the deity, and offered the energy of the First as both fuel for the spell and an offering to the god. And in an earlier section of the multiverse, effect became cause, and Alexander Tepes and his immediate Demesne transitioned in a flash of light, attracting multiple strikes of lightning against the Hellmouth and around the Castle.

The lines across and between nodes of power glowed for a few moments, from the Bluff to the Magic Box in the almost-leveled business district, back to the Bronze, up to the Castle, down to the Crawford Mansion, and back again to the Bluff. Then, from the outer points to the adjacent nodes, the Hellmouth in the center of this ringed star, a pulsating ugliness of Dark Power could be felt.

The bubbles of reality and ir-reality kept forming and fading, until a minute later…he felt not only unfatigued, but supercharged; indeed, he felt Chaos strong around him…the quiet scream of rain falling… peacefully….and then he watched as his Place merged and reformed with an unblessed duplicate.

As the effects wore off slightly, he felt the wrongness of that Other Sunnydale…glad that, of the twinned self, he remained with his extended family and friends.

He felt the Castle itself somehow charge fully, and he understood more of the magical composition of his own Sunnydale empathically, the types and the vulnerability inherent in all the types of magic associated with it. Somewhere beneath the bluff, an ancient temple that, in this dimension, had been cleansed of its past, held tremendous excess Power, only now without the great taint of centuries past.

Alexander began considering possible options for utilizing that Power in a manner pleasing to the Earth, perhaps cleaning up pollution or some like activity. He was about to pick up the phone, when most of the family he'd asked to depart for safety's sake, entered the throne room quietly, breaking him from his thoughts.

He sighed, but since there was little that could be done about their duplicates, he shook his head slightly as the Dagon's Sphere, and other devices were returned to their containers.

"I need to make a phone call, if you'll wait a moment," he told them, dialing the number from memory, and not waiting for the person on the other end to get beyond the beginning of a greeting.,

"Lindsey, this is Tepes., is Is your boss around? He is? Please put him on speaker phone, then. Mr. Manners, this is Alexander Tepes, I have a question for you…are Are you able to communicate with your alternate dimensional selves?"

"It takes some doing, sir, but I believe it can be done, if I may ask what—"

"Apparently, a nearby dimension is being invaded quite ferociously by another one. I have a counterpart there, and there seems to be interference blocking us. If you could have that office of yours send to him any relevant information, it would be considered favorably. And if it turns out your Senior Partners are part of the invasion, I'd like for the other Alexander to be given the information, and pass on my advice that he might consider relocation."

"That's quite an interesting situation, Prince Tepes, and I believe I received a memo regarding this activity. I will contact the Senor Partners with your request and get back to you as soon as I can effect an answer.?"

"Excellent, Holland., I must say that your firm is, forgive the pun, a god's send," Alexander chuckled falsely and rolled his eyes as his family watched him 'play' Evil Inc.' "Oh, that reminds me, - is Glorificus one of yours? She's making an awful fuss up here about wanting to 'go home.'"

"No, she recently liquefied all assets and settled her affairs with us and others, so she's probably might be serious."

"Hmm, I don't suppose your employers would like her to end this world just to get home?"

Holland Manners chuckled., "It would be bad for business. For the standard fees, we can send you non-priveleged privileged information by late tomorrow, if you so desire?"

"That would be excellent, Holland," the man replied, making a gesture familiar to wankers., "So long as we're referring solely to financial fees, please proceed. Until then, good day."

He waited a few seconds after hanging up and made hand washing gestures in disgust, "Not my favorite part of the role…"

Giles chose to make sure he his former charge was grounded by stating, truthfully enough, "Though you are frighteningly good at it."

"Yeah, instead of acting like a fool like I used to, I have to present my left buttock to be kissed by evil lawyers., wooWoo-hoo!"

The group laughed, relieved at knowing he hadn't yet lost his inner-Xander.


	17. Chapter 17

_Shadow Prince (17?)_ _Author: Tohonomike __Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine._

I know, a little small, but I'm trying to reinvigorate this story even if our parallel story in Lines of Convergence doesn't seem to be going anywhere?

**January 2nd, 2001**

Giles waited for the general mirth to settle down somewhat before voicing a concern, "Alexander, what exactly happened that you sacrificed…the First Evil of all things, to Janus?"

"It's hard to explain, Giles, but the short story is, I received a desperate call for help from the Willow in a different dimension, so I had to help. As you know, I've been researching ways of powering up the ferula for possible use on Glory. Janus having … marked me before … and as god of portals and doors, was the logical choice for outside assistance. So I basically created two originals, one of which is now in that other dimension, along with those of you who didn't leave."

Merrick's eyes widened and he almost gasped out, "You have that kind of power?"

"Merrick, I have a lot of power now, AND I'm able in the greater Sunnydale area to draw on a vast amount of power. Right now, I'm trying to figure out a way that I could tap Glorificus and drain hers; unfortunately I don't have enough information until the Wolfram and Hart types send me what they have."

Giles looked concerned, "You are able to tap the Hellmouth itself for energy, Xander? Do you think that's wise?"

"I'm able to Giles, but I don't plan to, at least not without proper research and thorough consultation with our mojo professionals. If we were to attempt it, it would be in hopes that overdrawing it could cause it to detach and fold back on itself to Hell. And we'd have to figure out what to do with the energy? Are there sleeping evils you haven't told us about that we could…bless…and cause them to end? I just don't know?"

Wes spoke up, "Alexander, is there any worry about this dimension being invaded next?"

"Yes, but not as effectively as the one I sent myself to Wesley; here, there's a large power source that's accumulated power over the ages, but it was blessed a few months ago…filtered, if you will, so I plan to expend that power doing something good before invaders can show up."

"I daresay things are increasing in scale aren't they?"

Merrick smiled, "Wouldn't want it to get boring now that I'm back, would we?"

Giles shook his head and actually managed an eye-roll, "Uncle Merrick, there's a lot to be said for quiet."

"Yes, usually that's when you prepare for the next round."

"Oh Good Lord…"

A couple hours later Xander received the asked for paperwork regarding the invasion, and confirmation that it had been sent to his other self before communications were cut off due to a physical interruption within the other dimension. Alexander prayed quietly that his family here would not have to deal with all out war against evil. Their problems were great enough without the fear that not only his large extended family could die, but the world with them as well.

While not on as epic a scale, the group was narrowing done potential venues of action to negate the threat of Glorificus, but so far the 'candidates' for host still numbered five in all. And none of the Watchers Council wanted to simply off the bunch of them since it might spread improper actions in the Slayers and Potentials bound under the new system to find out.

And then the telephone rang. After a moment of conversation with the person on the other end, Giles inhaled sharply before handing the phone to Xander.

"It's a Julian Luna, Alexander."

"That name's familiar, Giles…who is he?"

"There is … a non-demonic breed of vampires, the Council has classified them by one of their own names, Kindred. They pretend to be mortals and have generally obeyed human laws and societal constraints for at least the last two centuries we've really been able to know of them. And Julian Luna has identified himself as the 'Prince' of San Francisco, and would like an immediate meeting with you."

"Not demons?"

"No."

Xander nodded and removed his hand from the mouthpiece.

"This is Alexander Tepes."

"I am Julian Luna, Alexander Tepes. And I'm in our area, and would very much appreciate a meeting with you to discuss your presence in Sunnydale so that I might put my people at ease. I mean no violence, and we're generally impressed with your ability to eliminate the demonic varieties especially these last few months."

"I take it there is some territorial issue my presence has interrupted?"

"Not at all. With Wilkins in control of the Hellmouth with his large number of demons, that area is off-limits to all but the exiled and hunted of our people. I would like to know how things can either remain as they've been, or improve."

"Where are you, Mr. Luna?"

"I'm outside the county line, hoping to be invited to talk to you. I do have a few of my advisors with me."

"I need to invite you so you can enter the area?"

"Not like the demonics, but as you've effectively assumed preeminence in Wilkins territory, and my people had…agreements to respect one another's to avoid conflict, it would be impolite."

"How many are with you?"

"I will leave my bodyguards at your gate, but if it is agreeable, I'd like to bring a half-dozen of my people with me, heads of the various Clans."

"Do you require, um, refreshment, Mr. Luna?"

"Not how you're implying, Mr. Tepes. We do eat, but perhaps tea, coffee or a nice bottle of wine might break the ice."

"In that case, I'll expect you soon. Consider yourself invited."

Alexander mobilized his family to meet the Kindred in a civil manner. He took Faith and Buffy aside, and asked them to accept his lead and simply look ready for a defensive response if deemed necessary, while Merrick, Giles, Wesley, Darla and Jana would participate as his advisors. Hospitality of a high human nature was organized by Joyce and Cordelia so as not to seem cheap or impoverished.

Julian, Lily, Daedalus, Archon and tidied-up Cash alighted from the limousine in from of the estate, Daedelus under a cloak, surprised to find Tepes and his advisors leaving the building to greet them. Julian stepped up and from Lily's hands presented a bottle of century-old wine of excellent vintage to his host with his left hand.

"It comes from my family's vineyards, and I hope you and yours enjoy it, Mr. Tepes," Julian smiled and held out his right to offer a handshake. The youngish-looking man in black returned the gesture, then looked at the label before handing it to a blonde woman next to him that Julian remembered, but not in sunlight.

"Darla, you know more about wine than I…" the young man smiled, "When you get a chance, make sure to place this in a place of prominence; a gift needs to be honored according to its quality as well as that of the giver. Mr. Luna, my family has informed me I should refer to you by your title of Prince, but if you really are here for peaceful discussions, I offer my first name of Alexander for your use."

"In that case, I'm Julian as that is my intention."

"Please, let me introduce you to Darla Harris, Merrick Jameson-Smythe, Rupert Giles, Wesley Wyndham-Price and Jana Kalderash."

"Hello to you all," Julian returned, "And with me are Cash of Clan Brujah, Lily of Clan Toreador, Daedalus of Clan and Archon, former Prince and my mentor and advisor. Thank you for having us."

"Please, come this way…" Xander gestured, then noticed how Daedalus braced himself and had difficulty moving forward. "Mr. Daedalus, are you well?"

"There seems to be something I've felt since entering the property, and I'm uncertain what it is that is … burning the … bestial … from me."

"This place was the epicenter of a Blessing by two Vanir, who are earth divinities. With the strength of the Wards, it might be nearly as string as first cast, reflecting within the Wards. If you need to remain outside, I understand."

"No, Prince Tepes, I'd like to try for as long as possible to assist my Prince as he addresses matters with such an interesting personage."

"Thank you," Xander allowed, and led Julian and the others inside.

"This is a real castle, isn't it?" Lily asked aloud as they entered, "How long did it take to move it here?"

"About a tenth of a second," Xander smiled, "It wasn't easy."

The vampires looked at each other and sat in seats provided, not failing to notice two Slayers that sharply focused on them, and particularly Daedalus and Archon due to the greater and darker power. Julian decided to address a point of curiosity.

"So Alexander, how is it that Darla is human again? I've never heard of such a thing before outside of legends."

"It's expensive, and involves a lot of Power, but Darla was turned into a human, she was resurrected as a human. She's now part of my family and there is no demon here."

"I see…" Julian Luna nodded, such power was amazing but not unheard of. He was about to continue, when Daedalus gasped and fell to the floor with a whimper.

"Julian, what's happening? Do you have a demon in your midst?"

"No, but his Clan are closer to the original lines, and are susceptible by magic, and are both fueled by it and warped."

"Faith, Buffy," Alexander said in a raised voice, "help him back to the limousine, and don't kill him."

"Noooooo," Daedalus gasped, the hood of his cloak coming off, "Let me stay…"

"Oooookay, at least help him to the couch," Xander asked them, and made a slight shrug to Luna that he didn't really know what was going on. They watched over the course of an hour in amazement as his disfigurement through several spasms wracking his body, lessened until he was barely breathing in a slumber, and was now only homely but not hideous. Xander summed it up, "That's not something I expected when you called."

Julian couldn't help but smile at the remark, "Well it wasn't my idea to provide you with mystical entertainment, either, Alexander. But as he's sleeping, perhaps we can continue now that he's seems…safe?"

"Alright…Julian, this aside, what brings you to town?"

"We've been receiving intelligence for the last three months of the changes in Sunnydale, and wanted to know how to consider them?"

"And?"

"And I find you're not a vampire…though exactly what you might be I couldn't hazard a guess, either."

"If I were?"

"Then since you aren't demonic, we'd try to establish territorial boundaries with you and map out interactions."

"And since I'm not, but don't plan to let any new group in or evil group to survive, how would you like to proceed?"

"Ask your intentions, how they might affect my kind, and hopefully come to a similar arrangement."

"Hmm, my ultimate goals are the elimination of every evil and anti-human demon and other supernatural being on Earth, or those that would cause the world to end, human or otherwise."

"That's taking on a lot, don't you think?"

"More of a mission statement, actually, and I think quite fair."

Julian smiled, "And as the Kindred are not demonic?"

"Could you tell me a bit more of the 'beast-spirit' the Watchers Council has heard so little about?"

"In short, think of us as halfway between humans and vampires of Darla's previous tenure. The demon never enters, but the changes are made, including the more primal core of man. And as your 'mission statement' indicates, you understand the difference. Beyond that, I don't have the freedom to reveal more about us that way at this time."

"Like werewolves?"

"If it were just a genetic-changing disease and not a curse, yes."

"So, would you consider yourselves, hmm, Humans Plus or something? Looking at Mr. Cash, I could easily see him as the ultimate human biker but in compact form. I could se Lily at the top of artistic society in New York or Milan."

"Kindred consider themselves Kindred, but your view is close. We have rules and laws, including that as possible we abide by those of Man. And we try to keep the demonic types in check whenever we notice them."

"How do your territories work? Since I'm not one of yours, I plan to keep … non-secular power structures except mine out of the area, but fulfill our 'mission statement' as it seems needed."

"We would want you to drop us a note' to let us know you or your operatives were active in our town. That way we can prevent strife. But if you search for one of ours, or one who might be, then we expect to be informed, and while you or yours might show up, we alone will handle Kindred and their trial." Julian held up his hand, "In your own territory, it is in your hands, though if you obtain an identity we'd appreciate being informed."

"What about financial investments, that sort of thing?"

"Not a primary concern unless it involves businesses catering to Kindred. Then it becomes very impolite."

"Okay, I can understand that. I am also allied to the Watchers Council. I believe if information-exchanging could be arranged, they might not be adverse to a trial agreement of a similar nature. Is there a London branch or your group?"

"No, we have generally avoided the Watchers areas, especially Britain of the last two centuries."

"Can you contact the other … Princes … and broach the subject. Non-evil and it would be 'nice' if they aren't drug lords or mafiosos as those are evil professions. It would be nice that if you Kindred aren't evil, you'd consider 'celebrating your human heritage.'"

"Big thinking…"

"Tell them that Angelus, now Angel, works for me, and Darla is a human member of my family. Kakistos, William the Bloody, Dracula, Wilkins the Olvikan, Bathazar and his El Eliminati, Penn, and Joseph Nest have been eliminated by us in less than five years. And now we're better. This is not bragging, just a fact that we're not a bunch of children in spite of our comparative youth to most of your members. They should consider that if the threats are removed with their help, then they themselves re no longer considered threats."

"I'll let them know. But I don't know other than my own territory, if any will risk it."

"Julian," Daedalus sighed, sitting up and feeling his exposed face. He looked at the others, "The Beast inside me is so weak I don't know if it can really recover. I haven't felt this at peace inside since before I was Embraced."

"Are you saying this place defeated the beast inside?" Cash asked, "How?"

Xander spoke up, "This place was blessed by two nature deities, Mr. Cash. Beasts would fall under their purview, and cleansing the unnatural also. I believe Mr. Daedalus has been 'faith healed.'"

The Kindred looked at each other, Cash nodding, "My own core seems to be asleep, but not gone, Julian. I'm not nearly as … crazy I can get."

Wesley interjected his considerations, "I believe someone pointed out that Daedalus' Clan interact more deeply with the darker magic, and are of the more, um, vampiric lines? Cleansing that, and apparently, correcting or healing the damage, seems to be the Blessing. As your own are more…animal rather than darkness…in nature, the benefits would be minor in comparison."

Daedalus looked to Julian, "My Clan contains many still in our first centuries that would trade Power to be able to walk among the humans."

Xander held up a hand in concern, "Might this be enough to sway the Princes, Julian? Those who participate in the War against Evil, get to visit Castle Tepes for a couple hours? I don't know how long it lasts, but friends and allies are welcome."

Julian calculated internally that that simple offer could either tear the Clans apart, shift the Timszces to Alexander outright if their Princes decline, or achieve what the castle owner sought—which would require little effort but gain loyalty to the Princes who agreed.

"The one rule I would insist on, though… no Kindred in Sunnydale without permission. I don't want turf wars, or anything else. All who rebel against their Princes that might have refused, are excluded. They can renounce, and then leave those territories and join us here in our fight. But they are not to cause open trouble. Kind of like the noblemen of old were supposed to do when ending service with one liege. And they cannot travel back to the territory they declared their freedom from, for at least fifty years after. Fair enough?"

"It might be enough to prevent warfare, but it might be best if we wait and see if those of my people benefit, and then how they regress if they do."

Xander held up his hand to sake, "Do we have at east a tentative deal, Julian, and does your territory include Los Angeles where I'm also active, but not territorially?"

Julian took the man's hand, nodding, "Things are not strictly organized in Los Angeles. There are Kindred there, but it is under non-Kindred control so will not pose a problem. So yes, Alexander, we have a deal."


	18. Chapter 18

Shadow Prince (18?) Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**January 15th, 2001 – 8 PM**

"It's your cousin, Ben, we believe," Quentin Travers announced as he was let into the mansion to find the group waiting for him. "We've taken the liberty of removing him as previously discussed, and he is being tranquilized."

"Faith, please go get the ferula gemina from the vault, please," Xander asked., "It looks like I'll be making a trip."

He felt Buffy squeeze his hand in concern and turned to her, letting his love show in his eyes.

"I have to be the one, Buffy. This is family. If Whether I'm right or wrong, it's my planning, so I can't just wash my hands of it."

"Who are you planning to take with you?"

Travers surprised them by interjecting himself into this part of the conversation.

"Miss Summers, it will be only Alexander, myself, a pilot and our 'medic' that's who's keeping the vessel asleep. Any more would endanger the rest of you needlessly."

"But then why are you going?" she grimaced.

"Because I committed the Council in our alliance, so I will show the strength of our real commitment, by being there. You and the others need remain here to make sure that what we've started, prospers."

Alexander nodded and took the device from Faith., "How did you narrow it down to him, Quentin?"

"I didn't until we got over your estate and landed. We were able to continue remembering that the intern wasn't just another failed attempt. Eventually one of our quarter-demon coven members was able to figure it out. Right now, four of us have the Devon coven and a coven from San Francisco shielding our minds. I'm guessing that your Wards are temporarily preventing the spell from affecting you."

"I'm going too," Buffy insisted. "As you said, we're still working this out. I'll You guys'll need me to be there to toss Glory out the door if she shows up and causes trouble. Slayer strength and all."

Travers considered it a minute, then nodded agreement Xander nodded.

"So how do we do this, Quentin?"

"I'll explain when we get out to the helicopter. Our 'medic' can tell you what he's found out."

"Alright. Let's get this over with. It'd be nice if Buffy's birthday in a few days didn't involve an apocalypse or something."

They got into the helicopter to find that the 'medic' was Angel.

"You're the 'medic,' Angel?"

"I thought it would be easier to leave the others behind if we kept my identity out of this." He smiled wanly at Buffy, "Oops."

"Makes sense," Xander agreed, getting a disbelieving glare from Buffy. "So are you going to use the ferula gemina on the guy while we look clueless if the spell gets us?"

"That's my plan, though with all the magic in you, you might be immune. I'm not sure about Buffy. The Slayer usually has pretty good resistance and recovery, but this is a different type of magic than vampires usually have."

"I'll be fine, Angel," Buffy assured him, annoyed and at the same time pleased glad she wasn't being 'relegated to the kitchen by the men-folk.' "Next time, though, let's be a little more open about things. As we've all agreed, once we became one big team, we've become way stronger than before; let's not go back to hiding things."

"Fair enough," Angel and Xander nodded in agreement.

They flew out to sea about eighty miles then hovered low, just fifty feet above the waves. As expected, only Angel and Alexander managed to retain Ben's actual identity. The two men watched the intern being lowered, and since he was aware, Xander, as family, insisted that he and not Angel used the device, splitting the goddess from the her mortal vessel.

At first, it seemed all was well, when two humanoids instead of one suddenly appeared, but then the skanky blonde began to glow with power.

"Get 'em with the door gun, Angel!" Xander shouted as he fired the gemina at the hell goddess Glorificus four or five times, splitting her up again and delaying a possible explosion.

"Drop the net, Quentin!" he shouted as Angel fired wildly and eventually hit several of the Glories and, unfortunately, Ben. Now that they were split, the spell of obscurement was broken and everyone could act with clear minds.

Even as the 'goddesses' raged and shredded the steel-cable net, the young man that had died from the overwhelming trauma, even as Buffy managed to pick up and hurl into the torsos of the various versions of Glory several swords and axes the Watchers had on hand. This saved the copter from losing anyone, as, several times, Glory nearly was able to reach out to hurt one of the plane occupants, throwing chain pieces which instead clanged off the sides.

As Ben died, and the dispersed versions of Glorificus suffered horrific damage, the 'goddesses' hit the ocean and died as what little energy they had left heated the forty feet of water around them to a boil.

Steam surged up, and the helicopter pilot jerked wildly away and up; Angel fell loose, but Xander grasped the vampire's wrists with his own. Buffy then reached down and with Slayer strength helped pull the vampire back into the plane. Buffy slipped, falling with Angel back out as Xander's leg got caught in the door, wrenching it enough to cause him to scream in pain. And each arm now also wrenched, had a person clinging to it.

"Climb over me!" he shouted to the vampire and to the Slayer., "Hurry!"

A few minutes later, Travers, in back with them and now remembering fully, watched as their lights beamed down to find sharks in a frenzy eating the dead fish and anything else in the spot.

"It looks like the world can last a few more months, Alexander. Good work…all three of you."

The three men and the Slayer nodded and returned to silence as they headed back to Sunnydale and the now safer task of dealing with the War on the Darkness. Buffy and Angel helped Xander set his arms into positions to minimize pain as much as they could, so he could heal properly. Even with his enhanced healing ability, it would take a day or so before he was completely back to normal,

So, when Buffy leaned in to whisper in his ear several suggestions as to how she would help nurse him back to health, he merely grinned and leaned back in his seat and let her fuss over him to her heart's content.


	19. Chapter 19

Shadow Prince (19/?) Author: Tohonomike Disclaimer: All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. 

**May 15****th****, 2001 – 8 AM**

Joyce Summers hugged Buffy tightly; it would be at the end of the summer before she'd her daughter or the future son-in-law. The four months since the end of that Glory threatening Dawn had seen a marked improvement overall in how the family was doing, and in how the Council and the Californians approached their combined duty.

The Council had brought in professionals to train, advise and even (in education) tutor the two girls with the unasked-for destiny of Slayer. With the complete support system in place that had been lacking in the past, both thrived and their abilities in non-Slaying improved as well. But the emotional exhaustion of the previous years still lingered.

'Even for Xander,' Joyce mused as she watched her daughter step up into the RV the two were using for much of their trip. "And he's 'only' been doing this four and a half years to Buffy's five and a half."

"Joyce?" Rupert asked.

"Oh, just thinking about how much everyone's been through. Hoping there won't be too much slaying on their trip."

"Well, with everything quiet here during the summer break, I believe the Potentials brought in for, um, summer camp, with the three teams from the Council, will let all of the children, and ourselves, perhaps relax and recuperate. When school starts up in the autumn, even with the Potentials and some of their trainers departing, the teams will be increased to three here and three in Los Angeles."

"I know, Rupert. It's just hard to finally see her out in the world."

"She's not exactly alone," he gently chided. "Alexander's with her; they can help one another enjoy life."

Xander glanced over and smiled wide as he drove pass the old 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign and headed for the highway.

"What?" Buffy asked with her own big beaming smile, wondering what the what was.

"Oh…I just haven't seen you look so happy and carefree since your first day in Sunnydale," he replied with a lopsided grin. "It makes everything worth it. I love you, Buffy."

The girl blushed and her eyes watered a bit as they continued driving. Xander of all people becoming Mr. Mojo—not exactly expected. But he'd really been the only guy except Giles to never leave her. And once he became more confident, she smiled, it finally had made good sense to her and her Inner Slayer for something more to come of it.

Author's Note.

Sorry it is so short, but I wanted to end this little story. If I feeling like adding a couple of chapters later, maybe I will. But I have way too Many WIPs and want to concentrate on those that most of you review, by closing the ones that keep staring at me wanting to be finished. Thanks for coming along on the trip.


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